Garmin and TomTom hold the lion's share of the PND market and there's a heavy battle going on between the two competitors. This fight has even spilled over into the courts, where both parties have been claiming breaches of their patents and designs. Now, we find comparable competition is also going on between the two main suppliers of map material; even though in this case things haven't (yet) led to court actions. NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas are both fighting for the favour of the major PND makers, who take large quantities of their products.Little success
The American company NAVTEQ supplies maps to the US-based Garmin. The Dutch company TomTom looked closer to home for their map material, and found what they needed with the Belgian Tele Atlas. For both companies, though, the world doesn't stop at these two customers. Both work very hard to conquer the world and seal as many contracts with other customers as possible. Every small success is another step forward, both companies claim. At the current SEMA fair in Las Vegas, both Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ are proudly announcing their latest agreements.China
For Tele Atlas, the major growth potential currently resides in China. The company is investing millions in expanding their activities in this enormous country with its 1.3 billion inhabitants. The Chinese economy is expanding hugely and there are major opportunities for a lot of companies there. Tele Atlas has announced that Chinese PND manufacturer Malata will install their maps on the new PG and PGD ranges. The PG range comprises a few dozen PND models, which Malata is currently selling in about 30, mainly
Asian, countries. THE PGD models are combination systems for both navigation and the playback of DVDs.The Malata navigational systems’ specifications are on par with the specs of the systems that are sold in Europe. Screen diameters range from 3.5 to 5.6 inches and the Chinese also use TMC and multimedia functionalities with their PNDs. Malata is a big player in China and for Tele Atlas the agreement with this partner will no doubt mean a considerable boost in sales.
Land and water
NAVTEQ had to make a counter move of course, although the news they had to report at this years SEMA fair was rather less spectacular. They announced an expansion of the current collaboration between themselves and Lowrance, which sells PNDs on the American and Canadian market. NAVTEQ has been the map supplier for Lowrance PNDs for more than two years now, and with this announcement NAVTEQ will provide the mapping material for the new Lowrance iWAY 250C and 600C models as well. The iWAY 350C and 500C were announced as the best mobile entertainment products at the SEMA fair two years ago.The revolutionary feature of the new NAVTEQ-based 600C is that it contains maps for use on both land and water. So, having used it to navigate the US and Canadian road grid, Lowrance’s top model can also be used on your boat. The map material contains data on the water depth for more than 3000 lakes in North-America, and data for the entire coast line of the US. In addition to the depth data, there’s also information on the navigational means that the harbours use, and the tides for each location.
