Navigation Solutions Moving Into Commercial Telematics with NeverLost Fleet

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 11:19:11 EDT

Plano, Texas based Navigation Solutions demonstrated its new Neverlost Fleet solution at the recently held Telematics Detroit conference. It represents an important milestone for the vendor behind the NeverLost navigation solution offered by rental car company Hertz. NeverLost Fleet can be compared with TomTom Work, adding two-way cellular GSM (and Wi-Fi) connectivity to a consumer navigation solution in a rugged design to offer two-way fleet management for vehicle tracking, fuel consumption monitoring, dispatching and communication with the driver via a user-friendly touch screen with tactile feedback. The complete solution including the back-end portal was designed in-house.

Location based platforms and services provider TeleCommunication Systems announced the acquisition of California-based privately held LocationLogic, Autodesk’s former Location Services Business which was acquired by Hale Capital Partners earlier this year following Autodesk’s decision to focus on its main business. The deal is expected to be closed before the end of June for a total asset purchase of $25 million, $15 million paid in cash and $10 million in shares. No personnel reductions (LocationLogic counts 28 employees) or other cost savings are planned.< ...

NAVTEQ Launches On-line Mapping Portal

Thu, 14 May 2009 06:27:46 EDT

On May 12^th NAVTEQ announced the launch – in beta - of a mapping portal and geospatial platform (www.navteq.com) including routing capabilities and content such as real-time traffic (in US metropolitan areas) and drive time calculation as well as dynamic location data. This follows similar launches by navigation and LBS vendors TomTom (route planner) and Nokia (maps on Ovi) confirming the increasingly important role of PC-based mapping solutions as a key complement to mobile navigation and LBS applications and services for trip planning and sending destinations to mobile devices.

Location Based Advertising - Connecting the Dots

Wed, 6 May 2009 12:52:28 EDT

In discussions about location based services, it doesn't take long for the conversation to migrate to location based advertising (LBA). The usual issues then crop up - consumer privacy concerns, the absolute need for explicit device owner consent (opt-in), the importance of insuring the ads resonate with the recipient, the need for creating a pleasant experience for the recipient on a small form-factor display, and somehow tying all of these requirements together in a program that increases revenue for advertisers.

For many of those outside the advertising and marketing industry, LBA is often equated with so-called geo-fencing - a system in which an ad server knows when an opted-in mobile device user crosses a virtual boundary ...

Google’s Location-enabled Toolbar Brings the Geo-Web One Step Closer

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:13:15 EDT

“Toolbar with My Location” is the first pre-beta feature released by the recently created Google Toolbar Labs. It provides location-based search on Google, Google Maps displays centered around the current position, as well as a Google Maps toolbar gadget to view the current location on a drop down map and search for nearby businesses and locations. The location is calculated based on Wi-Fi access points with an average accuracy of 200 meter, a huge improvement over IP-based local search announced earlier by Google.

The announcement this week of AT&T's FamilyMap family locator service underscores the realization on the part of network operators that having a comprehensive set of LBS offerings that address core subscriber concerns is critical to maintaining market share. The new application is identical to Sprint Family Locator in many respects, which is not surprising considering both services were developed with the same partner (Wavemarket). As with all current location based service applications, these family tracking/locating services work best on GPS-enabled handsets, If the device doesn’t contain a GPS chipset or is not in clear line of site of a satellite, the system automatically uses alter ...

Technology Acquisitions and the Shrinking GPS Semiconductor Landscape

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:43:09 EDT

The announcement this week by u-blox regarding its plan to acquire Geotate, while a bit of a surprise, continues the trend that began in earnest back in 2007, with GPS semiconductor companies disappearing from the competitive landscape after receiving an offer they couldn't refuse. While handsets still have a way to go before maturing as a market opportunity, the competition for handset design wins is ferocious and the playing field is packed with major GPS chipset players, leaving only the bleacher seats for the smaller, less fortified sector companies to watch the action. GPS companies are already looking to digital cameras as the next 'hot' application for positioning technolo ...

Turn-by-Turn Navigation Coming to the iPhone

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:04:37 EDT

The long overdue announcement to support turn-by-turn navigation instructions came in the form of the preview of the new iPhone OS 3.0 software which will be available as a free update on all iPhones some time this summer. iPhone OS 3.0 now unlocks core location APIs for third party developers. However, while the Map Kit framework makes it possible for developers to embed native Google Mobile Maps services in their software, due to licensing issues turn-by-turn navigation developers will need to use their traditional map sources.

Navigation-enabled iPhones will provide additional competition to an already struggling PND m ...

CeBIT 2009: a Turning Point?

Sat, 7 Mar 2009 16:35:17 EST

The impact of the economic downturn was clearly visible at CeBIT this year. While visitor numbers once reached half a million, the 2009 version at times left a rather depressing image with some halls only filled for 50 % and many booths desperately reaching out to the sparse visitors passing by.

It was no different in Hall 14 which was dedicated to telematics and navigation. Part of this hall was left unused due to major brands such as TomTom being absent. However, Germany-based Navigon, Clarion, and Garmin had big booths and navigation software vendors such as Sygic, NGN, Mireo, Horizon Navigation, and ALK were prominent ...

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