Navx

Navx Beta new release launched today !

After the success of the public lunch of Navx Beta platform, a new high-powered and functional version is available today, ready to host a lot more travellers content.

The new things you may not miss are :

Flickr pictures located on map, so you will be able to visualize the pictures from your journey exacly in the right place they were took and what’s more, create points of interest in the pictures places.

The mass content management, so you will be able to oversee and manage your GPS content easily by selecting lots of POI’s, dragging and dropping them, adding all to a set, export them into your GPS or visualize them in Google Earth.

Social Contributions, so everyone will be able to share, through a public set, special POI, linked to the same context. Our European speedcams database has already been fine tunned with our first Fans.

Browse across your Friends Content

Alerts through GeoRSS feeds, so it is really easy now to keep alert with those contents that are special for each user. This feed is available for each user, set, and contribution.

We hope this version fillfull all your expectations. And that’s not all, we continue to prepare more and more good surprises for next month. So keep in touch and visite the site !!!

Red Herring 100 Europe - Malta Award Dinner

NAVX named as one of Europe's most promising technology companies

NAVX has been named as one of the most promising private technology companies in the 2008 Red Herring 100 Europe. 

Every year the editorial team of Red Herring analyses hundreds of cutting edge companies across Europe and selects the 100 that are best positioned to grow at an explosive rate. The winners have been announced at the Red Herring Europe event taking place this week on Malta:  NAVX is proud to be part of the best 100 private companies !

Need more info about NAVX ? Please contact us ! We will be happy to help you.

info :
Established in 2005, Paris-based NAVX is a leading provider of services and content for GPS devices, such as personal navigation systems. Its subscription-based, real-time services deliver rich information for its customers such as gas prices, the locations of speed cameras, restaurant guides and tourist information. NAVX also recently announced a platform which allows travellers to prepare, record and share details of trips and holidays, positioning places and notes of interest onto online map, available at http://beta.navx.com.
NAVX services are compatible with all major GPS brands, including Garmin, Magellan, Medion, Mio, Navigon, Navman and TomTom. The services are available in eight countries and are translated into six languages. NAVX  will continue to expand its international offering throughout 2008.

 

TomTom announces a weak Q1

TomTom announced yesterday lower than expected revenues in the first quarter, with an operating margin ranging between 0% and 10% (instead of the usual 20%).

This is not surprising given the impact of the price war we have been seeing in the recent months. The prices and margins of entry level PNDs are plumeting, while still making for the biggest part of the market.

What does it mean ? To our opinion, it indicates even more than PND manufacturer need to :
1) beef up their PNDs with additional services that can be sold to end-users, and generate revenues through subscriptions (e.g. traffic, weather, speedcam, gas prices, parking availability, etc)
2) convince PND owners to buy higher-end models to benefit from these services

Traffic information is clearly one example of a service that people will pay for, and it is no surprise TomTom has been closing a number of agreements with Vodafone in this respect. But as more connected PNDs hit the market this year and in 2009, we expect PND manufacturers to be very creative and launch a number of value-added services that will make a difference. And NAVX will actively contribute to this business :-)

Is the iPhone revolutionizing LBS ?

The Apple iPhone has shipped more than five millions units worldwide since its lunch in 2007.  We believe that the iPhone will bring consumer awareness to LBS- type applications and markets for the following reasons :

• The iPhone has a great screen for LBS applications, which is clearer than any PNDs and user-friendly for the LBS of  pedestrian navigation 
• The iPhone uses a combination of Skyhook Wireless' technology to do a initial Wi-Fi position (WPS) fix. If no Wi-FI access points are detected then it relies on Google's my location feature which is based on cell tower location information. It means that the absence of organic GPS is not a big deal if you want to search the nearest pizza on the iPhone.
• The Google-Maps application on iPhone is user-friendly and ergonomic:  easy to find restaurants, gas stations, get driving directions with the local search.. And it also enables poi creation and turn by turn navigation.
• The iPhone operates on the EDGE data network which provides up to three times the data capacity of GPRS, so advanced mobile services works well on the iPhone  and the network is fast enough to zoom in an out on LBS application.
• With the iPhone software development kit, which allows third-party programmers to create applications for the iPhone, many application will benefit from iPhone fonctionnalities (touch screen, google maps, location, big memory, adress book, connectivity, calendar ...)
• Accurate digital maps and related content are the foundation of powerful location-based services and applications and with all the social platforms launching their web application for iPhone, users can have more personalized experience from their devices.   

Navteq Global LBS Challenge Awards

NAVTEQ announced yesterday at the CTIA WIRELESS 2008 the Grand Prize Winner of this year's NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge, America: Ten 23

Ten 23's solution, SpotJots, is a location-based social blogging application that allows users to a upload their stories, reviews, pictures, video, audio and documents to their personal blog.

Three runners-up were also announced:
#1 Mediated Spaces's solution called The Wildlab enables citizen scientists such as birdwatchers to collect real-time information such as location, time and the species sighted on their mobile devices.

#2 HeyWhatsThat provides detailed information about the mountains and peaks around the user such as mountain names, elevations, contours and viewsheds -- all through the user's mobile device.

#3 America's Emergency Network's solution, AEN Mobile, alerts users about natural or manmade disasters within range of their devices by tapping into the AEN Central Database of emergency bulletins.

ps. The Global LBS Challenge is an important event in the location-based services industry because it challenges developers to build innovative location-enabled applications that work with mobile phones and/or wireless handheld devices using dynamic positioning technology. Participants compete for a global prize pool of cash, licenses and services from NAVTEQ and sponsors of the event, with this year's prize pool the largest to date, valued at over $4.5 million (US).