Companies such as Inrix are making their money helping commuters and commercial drivers find the fastest routes through traffic, but their reach could go much further. Creative organizations can apply the data in entirely new areas, and crowdsourcing means seeing how the world moves. Read more »
TomTom, one of the companies supplying mapping information for Apple’s Maps app, defends the quality of its data. There’s been much mockery of the new Maps app since iOS 6 arrived Wednesday, and TomTom suggests that Apple’s integration of its data is the problem. Read more »
Standalone GPS navigation makers continue to face the battle against smartphones and location based service apps. At least one of them is embracing the change: TomTom first added support for Facebook Places and now it includes Foursquare, making it easier to get directions and check-in. Read more »
Apple and Google still dominate the smartphone space, but look out for Microsoft, which finally has some muscle behind its mobile strategy. Meanwhile mobile-browser developers went head-to-head with native apps, and Facebook continued to buy mobile expertise via acquisition. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Electric car charging network owner Coulomb Technologies has lined up $47.5 million to expand its reach during a year when more new electric vehicle models are showing up. Read more »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
GPS can provide an important function for the emerging electric car industry: battling so-called range anxiety. On Monday, electric car charging company Coulomb Technologies announced that it has partnered with navigation company TomTom to offer charging locator, reservation and information services for plug-in car drivers. Read more »
Hot on the heels of the furor over Apple’s location databases, personal navigation device giant TomTom is in trouble for selling speed data to police. But both companies have shown how technology firms are too quick to dismiss the worries of their customers. Read more »
Free and bundled mobile navigation services are bringing once-pricey turn-by-turn services to the masses, and the masses are responding in a big way. That’s the upshot of a new study which found that the number of mobile users utilizing turn-by-turn navigation on their handset increased. Read more »
Line losses are now the single greatest threat to the mobile sector’s growth, and major carriers must overcome the ceiling under which they now find themselves and the growth of their business. The solution lies not in voice-centric mobile devices but with new non-phone data-consuming devices like tablets, e-readers and machine-to-machine technology like digital picture frames, personal navigation devices and more. Tier 1 carriers — Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile — face a number of challenges, including a lack of control over distribution, disruptions to traditional pricing models and the unique nature of M2M deployments. For them, success will rely on experimenting with business models and the ability to quickly adjust data plans to drive profitability and growth. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
