Tag Archives: GPS

TomTom and ALK are using the World Cup to launch new products and in TomTom’s case, an unbelievable offer is available.

From the whole press release, this is the bit you need to read- “Those who buy a GO550, GO750 and GO950 in the run-up to the tournament will be able to claim the full cost of the device back, should England win the final.” You also need to know that England will not win the World Cup… Ho hum.

ALK has released Co-Pilot Live 8 for South Africa with claims that it will get you to hotels, airports and the stadiums for the World Cup.

“Available for iPhone, Android smartphones or Windows Phone, CoPilot Live provides full turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation in-car or on foot. Detailed street maps of South Africa are stored on the phone, so there’s no need to rely on the mobile network for navigation and no risk of incurring huge roaming bills for downloading maps.

With matches for the forthcoming tournament spread between several cities over considerable distances (approximately 1,500 miles for the England team’s first 3 games alone), many fans will have the chance to explore the stunning scenery and sights throughout South Africa.”

This is clever. Bluesky positioning has been working with Telemap to bring GPS to ‘any’ GSM mobile phone. It is a brilliant idea, but maybe one that would have a much bigger market 2 years ago.

The full press release is here (PDF)- London, UK and Sophia Antipolis, France – March 18, 2010 – Telmap, the global leader in mobile location solutions and BlueSky Positioning, a pioneer of A-GPS for the SIM card industry, jointly announced today a cooperation to bring for the first time ever, real-time search, mapping and navigation to mobile phones, with A-GPS SIM. This cooperation showcases the ability of BlueSky Positioning’s A-GPS technology to incorporate navigation onto mobile phones which lack integral GPS capabilities.

BlueSky Positioning’s A-GPS technology, embedded into a phone’s SIM card, together with Telmap’s search, mapping and navigation solution enable effortless on-the-go experience, including excellent in-car navigation sessions with 3D moving maps, multi-lingual turn-by-turn directions with street names using text-to-speech, as well as traffic and speed camera information (where available). Telmap’s solution also includes unique pedestrian navigation, guiding users through pedestrian-only areas such as parks, squares, passages, and stairs, tracking user’s progress as they walk. The Telmap – BlueSky Positioning cooperation allows (smart and) mid-range phone users to access real-time location information without the need to invest in location-aware hardware. The full, comprehensive set of LBS features provided by Telmap’s Location Companion works seamlessly with BlueSky Positioning’s A-GPS location technology to provide accurate, instant location data and information.

Ronen Soffer, CTO at Telmap, commented, “In utilizing BlueSky’s innovation, Telmap can introduce its LBS and Navigation solution to a larger addressable market, which now includes new consumer segments and a multitude of mid-range mobile phones. This helps further realizing Telmap’s strategy of mass market reach for its services, while boosting Operators’ business case as well as control over distribution and customer ownership of such services.”

Vodafone is going to kill off its Wayfinder service due to competitive pressure from Nokia and Google. Here are some select quotes from Mobile Industry Review- “Due to the huge competitive pressure generated by the market entry of Nokia and the upcoming launch of Google navigation, Vodafone is proposing to close down Wayfinder…” “We could not charge for something that others gave away for free…”

Ewan over at MIR agrees with this decision, but to me it could be shortsighted. I understand that Nokia and Android phones form a large part of Vodafones sales, but what about the other phones they sell? The millions of other phones? One way to compete with free is to make your own service free and use it to drag customers through the door. It’s as good a loss leader as I can think of.

It seems as though the Garmin nuvifone was first announced when Psion was still going strong, but at last it is moving from myth to reality and Brighthand has posted a review of this fabled device. It would have done much better had it been released nearer to the announcement date, a lot nearer…

“Whether or not you like the Garmin nuvifone G60 entirely depends on your tech personality and what you want to get out of your phone. Your average nerd would probably take one look at the G60 and start laughing because it doesn’t play games or videos and it doesn’t have Twitter and Facebook clients along with all the other bells and whistles that today’s smartphones should have.

But your average consumer would likely have an entirely different reaction. The G60 would be perfect for folks like my mother who are relatively comfortable with technology but take a “just the facts” approach to electronics — they just want things to work, and don’t care that it can do the laundry and walk the dog for you, too. The G60 would also be a good choice for folks who are trying to simplify a bit and combine devices — perhaps you know someone who needs to stay connected, but doesn’t have a phone permanently attached to their ear; someone who would welcome the ability to have a GPS in their pocket that also serves as a phone with light e-mail and web browsing capabilities.”