John Craig is currently ‘VP Wireless’ at Destinator, supplying Navigation and Content solutions. Previously he was at Cambridge Positioning Systems (CPS) developing both Cell- and GPS-based location technologies. Before that he experienced a crash-course in the media industry, working with Content and Rights for the mobile...

GPS Business News interviewed with Richard Fearon, CEO at Avnic, exclusive distributor of Garmin’s products in South Africa. GPS Business News: how did Avnic become the distributor of Garmin? Richard Fearon: Avnic was born out of an aviation background; the company was involved in helping...

Yesterday the European Commission (EC) approved the Tele Atlas acquisition by TomTom. This unconditional approval can be read as a total victory for TomTom. In November 2007, when the European Commission entered in the phase two process such a positive outcome was doubtful. Indeed, at that time the EC stated: “After a...

BusinessWeek.com published yesterday an article “TomTom and Garmin Lose Their Way” explaining that “Makers of personal navigation devices are facing tough times from keen competition—namely cell phones—and a weakening economy”. Obviously –after the TomTom profit warning announced Tuesday - it is clear there are challenges...

Patrick Connolly is a senior analyst with IMS Research’s Mobile Technologies group. Patrick’s focus is on the worldwide licensed and unlicensed mobile radio markets, as well as autonomous and network-based/assisted GPS solutions for cellular and portable devices, and emerging location technologies to be used in conjunction...

GPS Business News met with Egil Juliussen, Principal Analyst at Telematics Research Group at the Navigation and Location conference in San Jose early December. In this open discussion Mr. Juliussen gave us his thoughts about the GPS and location-based market, on topics such as real time traffic information, pedestrian...

During the Location and Navigation conference organized by Telematics Update in California earlier this month, GPS Business News interviewed with Mike Ippoliti, research director at ABI Research. In this eight minutes video interview Mr. Ippoliti shared with us his views on connected PNDs, real 3D navigation and the market...

Last week the GPS market has ended a period that started July 23rd when TomTom announced its intent to buy Tele Atlas. Indeed, on Friday Garmin has signed a long term agreement with Navteq for the supply of digital maps and said it did not intend to buy Tele Atlas. While troubled period often means winners and losers, it...

Mike Ippoliti is Research Director, Telematics & Automotive at ABI Research. He manages the team for the automotive practice area while concentrating his own research primarily on Automotive Infotainment topics. Prior to joining ABI Research in 2007, he spent ten years at Volvo Cars of North America, where he had several...

Commenting about the recent Navteq acquisition by Nokia, Hans-Hendrik Puvogel, CEO of Munich-based Jentro Technologies said in a statement today: "This acquisition will drive a paradigm shift in navigation. Navigation of the future is connected". According to market research firm Canalys Jentro is Europe’s number two in...

Following the Nokia intent to buy Navteq for $8.1 billion this week, Thilo Koslowski, Vice President Automotive and Vehicle ICT at Gartner, released a note analyzing the consequences of this deal. “The acquisition will create a highly disruptive environment that will threaten the value proposition of vehicle embedded...

In the recent days a lot of “market analysts” have given their views on the Nokia acquisition of Navteq for $8.1 billion. One of these views is that Garmin lost a huge opportunity and would therefore be in trouble with no more independent global map provider - Tele Atlas being bought by TomTom. Such analysis made the Garmin’s...