ALK: “There is a Lot of Appetite for on-Board Navigation on Android”

GPS BN: What about advertising?
DQ: Yes, we do also mobile advertising to drive downloads.

GPS BN: What do you prefer: in-app ads or mobile websites?
DQ: Usually we do 70% in app and 30% mobile web, most of the mobile advertising networks offer both. The good thing for a marketer is measurability; you can really see what works and what does not. We also found that traditional forms of advertising do not really work to sell on the iPhone app store.

In addition to that, our final piece is about direct communication with our customers: email is quite powerful.

Obviously there is not a real substitute to being featured by Apple directly in the App store. If you get highlighted by Apple it drives a lot of downloads.

GPS BN: You have just launched a mobile truck product for Europe, what can you tell us about that?
DQ: Yes indeed, a lot is going on actually in our professional navigation business. We are launching CoPilot Live Truck for Windows Mobile in Europe, a product we had in the US for many years.

Obviously, when thinking about truck navigation everybody thinks about avoiding low bridges, but it is much more than that actually. Our algorithms can calculate the route based on load and truck size and we also have special POIs such as stops, rest stops and weigh stations) and real-time traffic data available.

GPS BN: how much does it cost and on which platforms is it available?
DQ: It costs £114.99 for UK and Ireland and there is another version for DACH [Germany, Switzerland and Austria] at €139.99. In addition, there is a full European option that is available for £159.99/€189.99.

Right now it is only available for Windows Mobile, which is still the big platform in the mobile enterprise world. But we are currently finalizing the software for other platforms, including the iPhone. I also believe we might get some interesting traction for an iPad version.

GPS BN: You said this product was available for a long time in the U.S., why not sooner in Europe?
DQ: I would say it is mainly due to the lack of comprehensive data. Only recently NAVTEQ got an extensive coverage in Europe. Now we are confident that we have the data we need to get the product on the shelves.

GPS BN: David, thank you for your time.
DQ: My pleasure.