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Navigon USA folds

Following several days of speculation in blogs and on message boards, Navigon CEO Egon Minar has confirmed that they will “withdraw from the PND business in North America.” Though they are saying this is “for the time being,” I seriously doubt that they will ever reverse this decision. Navigon is keeping their Chicago office open, but it is unclear what level (if any) of support services will remain, or if Navigon owners will be able to purchase new services.

Motorola to unveil connected PND this fall?

Motorola is planning to update their GPS line this fall, and they are dropping hints that they may venture into the manufacturing connected PNDs. According to Blake Bullock, who heads up their navigation products operations:

"We’re absolutely making a bigger play," said navigation product line manager Blake Bullock. "We believe we can bring something new to the table with Motorola’s vast experience in wireless connectivity. We have aspirations to do just that, combining the best aspects of 3G smartphones with PNDs and creating optimized experiences for consumers."

Mio says they’re still here

A few days ago I posted about the GPS Business News report that Mio was leaving the U.S. market. Now, this backdated news release has shown up on their website:

“In response to the article published in GPS Business News entitled “Mio closing business in the US” on April 3, 2009, Mio announced that the company will continue the sales in the North American market. Mio will offer products in selected channels and launch new products in May. Mio emphasize that the company will also continue to deliver sleek, easy-to-use portable navigation devices to the market, and also accelerate the development of a variety of innovative GPS-based lifestyle products that extend the user experience well beyond traditional PNDs.”

Mio reportedly leaving U.S. market

GPS Business News is reporting that Mio is leaving the U.S. market. If true it is undoubtedly related to parent company MiTAC’s acquisition of Magellan, though it does contradict an earlier announcement that the Mio and Magellan brands would co-exist here.

TomTom ONE and XL IQ Routes editions heading to U.S.?

Yesterday TomTom announced new editions of the TomTom ONE and XL, featuring IQ Routes and Advanced Lane Guidance, which had previously been available only on newer GO models. While these new models are first being introduced in Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand, GpsPasSion is reporting that they will ultimately make their way to the U.S. Others are speculating that we won't see them on this side of the pond until TomTom reduces its backlog of inventory here in the States.

iPhone OS 3.0 and turn-by-turn navigation

Apple unveiled the iPhone 3.0 operating system yesterday and there were a couple of interesting mapping and navigation announcements as part of the show.

Turn-by-turn navigation

First of all, they opened the door to turn-by-turn navigation apps, as long as the developer uses their own maps. Expect to see application announcements soon from TomTom / Tele Atlas and also from TeleNav.

Garmin will be faced with an interesting dilemma. Do they develop an iPhone app, which would be quite the revenue generator if it became the top navigation app (not a high bar for Garmin). Or would that just encourage Garmin-lovers to skip the nuvifone and get an iPhone instead?

TomTom to reduce emphasis on PNDs?

TWICE is reporting that TomTom "will reduce spending in PNDs and increase spending on content." This comes on the heels of their $1.3 billion Q4 loss and reports that they may need to, once again, renegotiate the terms of loans used to buy Tele Atlas.

More on Garmin-Asus alliance

I just finished listening to the Garmin webcast re: their partnership with Asus, and here is what I garnered:

Multiple nuvifones coming from Garmin - Asus

Garmin is definitely getting into the cell phone market in a big way. They are announcing a partnership with Asus today, producing several nuvifone models in 2009. This appears to be in addition to the Android phone we previously discussed. The initial model, the Garmin-Asus G60, is still expected to be delivered in the first half of 2009.