TomTom | GPS Obsessed

SiRF Losing Money And Downsizing, Om Malik Says Portable GPS Is Dead

by Justin

SiRF, the company whose chipsets power some of the world’s most popular GPS navigation devices, is set to cut 7% of its workforce due to losses as the prices of consumer GPS devices continue to drop and sales are below expectations. The cuts come after SiRF announced their first quarter financial expectations have dropped by $10 million and will also result in the closing of two offices-one in San Francisco and the other in Stockholm, Sweden.

The company will also be killing off their in-development mobile TV business due to short-term losses-normal for new businesses, but not something SiRF can absorb at the moment. While mobile TV will probably become fairly “mainstream” at some point, it’s an emerging trend at the moment, and definitely not the business to enter for a financially strapped company.

Om Malik of broadband blog GigaOm believes that SiRF’s problems are indicative of pending disaster in the GPS industry. Being the chipset supplier of popular consumer brands such as Garmin and TomTom, SiRF’s issues are easy to extrapolate to the portable GPS market. This is probably likely in the short term, but long term could see portable navigation devices obliterated by the growing mobile phone market, says Malik. It seems many of the newly released mobile models this year feature integrated GPS functionality or at least the ability to use navigational apps. I can’t see this happening too soon. Maybe in a couple of years when GPS-enabled phones are ubiquitous, but automotive GPS in North America is only in its beginning stages and cell phone GPS will never replace automotive GPS in any practical (and safe) way.

Sphere: Related Content

March 27, 2008 5 Comments

Wikitude Allows TomTom And Garmin Users To Generate POIs From Wikipedia

by Justin

Wikitude is a neat site for generating POIs for either your GPS device or Google Earth. Presently it only has the option of outputing POIs uploadable to TomTom GPS units, but I’m sure that’ll expand to include the likes of Garmin in the future. For now though, if you do have a Garmin GPS, there is an online tool called TakItWithMe that will convert the Google Earth KML file Wikitude generates into a GPX file compatible with Garmin units.

What’s really cool about Wikitude is that it uses geographical information from Wikipedia to generate nearly 350, 000 possible POIs. The site has a search feature that splits waypoints into general categories such as “landmarks” or waterbodies, or allows you to type in something more specific. Popular POI categories, POIs by city, and a variety of language options also make navigation of the site simpler as well as accessible for global use.

Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, it’ll be displayed on a Google Maps mash-up, with a bubble containing geographical information about the location as well as links to the actual Wikipedia article or the downloadable KML file or ov2 file for you TomTom unit.

Definitely a neat service guaranteed to generate the world traveler some fantastic POIs.

Via Google Earth

Sphere: Related Content

March 20, 2008 No Comments

TomTom Go 930 And Go 730 Feature Advanced New Features: IQ Routes And Advanced Land Guidance

by Justin

TomTom has unveiled the Go 930 and the Go 730, updated versions of the 920 and 720. Two new advanced features make all the difference though: IQ Routes technology routes you the most congestion free way depending on the day, eventually integrating the actual time of day in the future and Advanced Lane Guidance features realistic representations of difficult junctions to allow for easier navigation through difficult spots.

IQ Routes uses historical average speeds rather than posted speed limits for navigating, meaning that the Go 930 or Go 730 considers all the possible routes to your destination and chooses the fastest one based on the most recent historical data. TomTom claims that at least 50% of the time, this method of navigation results in a faster overall travel time.

The TomTom Go 930 and Go 730 are slated for release with the new, advanced features near the end of April 2008. The specs are way to comprehensive to dull down for easy reading here, so here are the full specs and press release:

[Read more →]