Australia & NZ: Garmin Switches from Sensis to NAVTEQ

Garmin has today announced that it will transition its map provider for the majority of its Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) in Australia and New Zealand to NAVTEQ from February 2012. Sensis was the previous map data provider.

"Garmin is known for providing the best navigation experience for PND users around the world," said Trevor Berrange, Managing Director, Garmin Australasia. "NAVTEQ has been Garmin's map provider in the United States and throughout most European countries for many years and they have invested heavily in the Australian and New Zealand markets to provide a quality map solution for our customers."

As Garmin is moving away from Sensis it will be interesting to see if and for how long wireless operator Telstra, which owns Sensis, will keep Garmin as navigation software supplier for its carrier billed, iPhone turn-by-turn navigation app, called “Garmin Navigator GPS from Telstra.“

NAVTEQ has been step by step taking away market share from Sensis. With Garmin that is a big chunk of the market. NAVTEQ already won Navman in 2009 (read here). Sensis currently powers TomTom and Uniden.