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TomTom shares rise as talk of Apple buy-in spreads
 TomTom shares have risen nearly 10% as speculation that Apple are considering a stake continued.
Shares reached an 8 month high this morning as a result of the gossip although some traders think it unlikely that Apple will seek to grab a stake.
Earlier this week TomTom took centre stage during the Keynote opening speech at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference where they were chosen to take the lead announcement of the first iPhone Navigation application.
TomToms decision to design a custom car cradle that has its own GPS receiver is interesting given the talk of Apple taking a stake. Admittance that the iPhone needs help with GPS reception would not normally be seen as a positive yet Apple still chose TomTom from a number of manufacturers to demo during the Keynote speech.
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 Posted by W90BHP on Fri Jun 12, 2009 4:38 pm |
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Would some level of shared ownership give a reasonable idea of continued support (updates etc) for the software?
Or could this be another Navigator v6...
Martin
LG G4: Android 6 : Viewranger : CoPilot : Waze
TomTom Go 730T : Traffic subscription long expired
Nokia E61 : Nokia GPS : TomTom Navigator 6 : Retired from duty
iPAQ 3970 : Navman Sleeve : CoPilot 4 : Somewhere in the loft |
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| Posted by rtj70 on Sun Jun 14, 2009 5:52 pm |
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Would the inclusion of a GPS receiver suggest this will work for the iPod Touch as well which does not have inbuilt GPS? Opens up a much bigger market at the same time.
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| Posted by Darren on Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:03 pm |
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| rtj70 Wrote: | | Would the inclusion of a GPS receiver suggest this will work for the iPod Touch as well which does not have inbuilt GPS? Opens up a much bigger market at the same time. |
Indeed that is what we and other have speculated. I quizzed TomTom on this subject and they were unable to answer.
It would certainly make ultimate sense that TT did have a solution that could work with the Touch.
Another interesting consideration is that for them to design and manufacture this cradle they would have to have known that the 3G S case design had not changed.
That is very privileged information that very few outside of Apple would have known. For Apple to share such info with anyone outside of Apple pre-launch is unusual if not unique.
Darren Griffin |
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| Posted by rtj70 on Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:14 pm |
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But the iPod Touch is thinner so would it fit? Seems odd to include another GPS receiver (if they really did) unless the iPhone one was poor. Not having an iPhone I cannot comment on that. I do have a iPod Touch. But with a TomTom 720 would I buy this anyway????
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| Posted by Darren on Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:21 pm |
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| rtj70 Wrote: | | But the iPod Touch is thinner so would it fit? |
From the look of the cradle, depth isn't an issue, it looks similar in design to other cradles I have seen that can accommodate devices of varying depths.
| Quote: | | Seems odd to include another GPS receiver (if they really did) |
TomTom have confirmed to me that it does.
| Quote: | | But with a TomTom 720 would I buy this anyway???? |
Only you could answer that!
Darren Griffin |
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| Posted by gatorguy6996 on Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:45 pm |
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FWIW, I had seen that the touch would indeed work with the TT active dock, tho I can't answer for the source. What would come as a surprise (to me) is Apple having any interest in Tomtom as a whole. IIRC, much of the TomTom team in the beginning had roots at Apple, so it would come as no shock to me that they might be able to get a bit of inside help on the initial dock design. IMO, the mobile development, specifically with regard to hardware/antenna design would be where Apple might have some interest if there is any. Can't see why they would want anything to do with the pnd side of things. Just my opinion, which of course isn't any more valid than anyone else's.
Garmin 1695 / 255 / 760 w/MSN - Droid w/Google nav + Navigon - Navigon 8100T - Dakota10 - GPSMap76C - GeoMate Jr. |
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| Posted by rtj70 on Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:51 pm |
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TomTom started out doing application for the Psion. I still have a Psion 5 in the cupboard (so running "symbian"). The did a sat nav application for the Psion over 10 years ago.... moved on a little since.
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| Posted by rtj70 on Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:57 pm |
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And the Psion 5 still works.... just powered it up! Touch screen, stylus and all.
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| Posted by gatorguy6996 on Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:37 pm |
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The announcement today that the TomTom principals will be kicking in more money, and a substantial sum at that, would seem to indicate that no Apple investment might be expected. The only new investment is see in the announcement is from 2 holding companies, one an insurer and one from a founding investor of TeleAtlas. Good to see the owners are willing to put their own money into the company tho. It should be noted that their ownership is now reduced to about 48% from 51%, leaving open an unlikely scenario of an unfavorable takeover at some future point.
Garmin 1695 / 255 / 760 w/MSN - Droid w/Google nav + Navigon - Navigon 8100T - Dakota10 - GPSMap76C - GeoMate Jr. |
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| Posted by stuartm on Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:32 am |
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| Darren Wrote: | Another interesting consideration is that for them to design and manufacture this cradle they would have to have known that the 3G S case design had not changed.
That is very privileged information that very few outside of Apple would have known. For Apple to share such info with anyone outside of Apple pre-launch is unusual if not unique. |
You're right in that it is privileged information and would undoubtedly have been the subject of an NDA but it's hardly unique.
Have any of the iPhones been released without any 3rd party accessories available on launch day? Do you think that case and accessory manufacturers take a random guess at what the dimensions will be?
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