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TomTom Celebrates 20th Birthday
Article by: Darren Griffin
Date: 10 Nov 2011
TomTom are this week celebrating their 20th birthday. Founded in 1991 by Peter-Frans Pauwels, Pieter Geelen, Harold Goddijn and Corinne Vigreux, TomTom began as a small company selling b2b software but it was their move into consumer software that saw their business take off.
RoutePlanner was a favourite mapping application for Palm and later PocketPC. Indeed it was the arrival of RoutePlanner, and the infamous GPS Jacket for Navman that was the seed for the launch of this site. At the time, Navman sold re-branded TomTom software with their Navman 3000 GPS Jacket for Compaq iPaq.
They subsequently launch TomTom Navigator in 2002 and followed their software success with the launch of their first hardware device, the TomTom GO, unveiled in 2004.
From all at PocketGPSWorld.com, Happy Birthday TomTom.
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 Posted by will7201 on Thu Nov 10, 2011 4:05 pm |
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Happy Birthday. Now the UK must nearly be at satnav saturation point, how about taking 20% off prices for Crimbo?
Will.
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| Posted by zebsogo on Thu Nov 10, 2011 4:09 pm |
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| will7201 Wrote: | Happy Birthday. Now the UK must nearly be at satnav saturation point, how about taking 20% off prices for Crimbo?
Will. |
Hahah good one.. as if that's gonna happen
--
Navigon 92 Premium Live,TomTom Go 6000,Garmin 2699 LTM-D and a TomTom Go 1005 Live ( For the wife )
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| Posted by will7201 on Thu Nov 10, 2011 4:56 pm |
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I will say I've had to take rather a lot of pain relief today! I'm only dreaming!
Will.
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| Posted by Andy_P on Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:11 pm |
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| News Team Wrote: | | Founded in 1991 by Peter-Frans Pauwels, Pieter Geelen, Harold Goddijn and Corinne Vigreux |
I wonder how many of those are still there?
I'm hoping someone writes a history of TomTom over the last few years from an insider's viewpoint. That would be VERY interesting!
"Settling in nicely" ;-) |
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| Posted by Darren on Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:21 pm |
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| Andy_P Wrote: | | News Team Wrote: | | Founded in 1991 by Peter-Frans Pauwels, Pieter Geelen, Harold Goddijn and Corinne Vigreux |
I wonder how many of those are still there? |
They're all still with TomTom.
Darren Griffin |
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| Posted by Andy_P on Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:35 pm |
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Wow! that does surprise me!
I would have thought they would be tearing their hair out to see what's happened to their baby.
AFAIK, they lost some very crucial designers and had to basically start all over again, because no-one knew how anything worked any more!
(That might even be why there's no Itinerary planning on the new models.... We always said it looked like the code was written by someone different and was then bolted onto the rest of the software.!
"Settling in nicely" ;-) |
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| Posted by Darren on Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:50 pm |
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Not heard that but it wouldn't surprise me, it's quite unusual to keep people for so long. Pieter Geelen was the guy who designed the original GO and the UI. It was an excellent UI and elements of it are still withy us to this day.
Darren Griffin |
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| Posted by SteveR on Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:36 am |
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Didn't they start as Palmtop Software? I remember passing their offices when I visited Psion NL in Hoofddorp for a repair on my 5mx. I still have copies of EnRoute, Route Planner, and Street (Route). Their first versions were for Psion. Only after that did they expand into the other systems, as Psion was wobbling and the other markets potentially larger.
Steve
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| Posted by Kar98 on Sun Nov 13, 2011 12:12 am |
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| SteveR Wrote: | Didn't they start as Palmtop Software? I remember passing their offices when I visited Psion NL in Hoofddorp for a repair on my 5mx. I still have copies of EnRoute, Route Planner, and Street (Route). Their first versions were for Psion. Only after that did they expand into the other systems, as Psion was wobbling and the other markets potentially larger.
Steve |
Yes, they used to be PalmTop B/V, and their first products were dictionaries for PalmOS and later Windows CE, a racing game by the name of "V Rally", and "Michelin Red Guide".
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| Posted by technik on Sun Nov 13, 2011 5:58 pm |
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| SteveR Wrote: | | my 5mx. I still have copies of EnRoute, Route Planner, and Street (Route). Their first versions were for Psion. |
I can remember using my Psion 5 with Route Planner to get me to Strasbourg from the UK.
It's amazing that we can now use our smart phones to do the same job today.
GO 620, Tomtom Android EU,
Garmin 2548LMT-D; 2599LMT-D |
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| Posted by SpeedCam on Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:07 pm |
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Darren, surely we haven't been involved in GPS technology that long, if we have its been fun. I know that TomTom existed before PocketGPS was founded but it wasn't that long before, I still have fond memories of the HP iPaq GPS receiver I think that was the starting point for PocketGPS.
Speedcam
Model : HTC HD2, HTC Magic, iPhone 3g, GO 740, XL GO Live |
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