Like luxury-class explorers, the geographical analysts travel streets and roads in a tech-laden SUV equipped with a satellite tracking computer system, electronic clipboard and rooftop cameras. "Our clients are wanting a growing number of info," said Mc, Neil, who has actually driven numerous thousands of miles in a decade at Navteq. " TechCrunch broadening all the time." It's all part of a race with Dutch competitor Tele Atlas NV to not only chart the world more properly however combine the maps with other relevant information.
and other business, and Web map sites like AOL's Mapquest, Google Inc.'s Google Maps and Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo Maps. Navteq is the Rand Mc, Nally of the 21st century, according to Colorado-based map industry expert Henry Poirot. And the quick development may be simply starting. Thanks to global placing systems and current technology improvements, Navteq is fine-tuning ways to let customers use a phone or other handheld gadget to track their dogs, find where to jog in another city, find out the number of calories they will burn doing it, learn where the nearby 24-hour gasoline station are and see existing traffic and weather.
"There's a great deal of competitors going on," said Thilo Koslowski, an analyst for Gartner Inc. "Both business are trying to reveal that their information is much better, by being innovative in gathering more comprehensive info." The mapping duel warmed up this week with the statement that Tele Atlas accepted a $2.
While that should make the combined European company a more powerful enemy, Navteq's stock also skyrocketed. Experts said Tom, Tom's competitors such as Garmin might now go to the Chicago-based company for their maps instead of purchase from a rival. Navteq wishes to enhance its present share, which currently consists of most of the Internet mapping market and a split of the portable gadget market with Tele Atlas.
The greatest danger dealing with the two rivals in the future might be user-generated map content _ a mapping equivalent of You, Tube, as it were. Google also might be a rival. The Internet search leader is deep into research study, advancement and even acquisitions related to its mapping services, that include Google Earth as well as Google Maps.
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