Mitac Buy Navman

Darren · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:46 am Post subject: Mitac Buy Navman

Source: Yahoo Business News

This one appears to have passed by with little fanfare. Last Thursday Navman's parent company, Brunswick Corporation announced that it had agreed to sell Brunswick New Technologies' Navman (PND) operations to MiTAC International Corporation.

Navman were the first to release a dedicated PocketPC GPS Navigation sleeve for the Compaq iPAQ 3630 way back in 2001. In fact it was as a result of this SatNav device that a number of owners banded together to form this very website!

Navman dominated the market back then but began losing ground once TomTom ramped up their own sales and they never caught up despite being first to market with the iCN630 and innovative ideas such as Navpix. In a twist of fate their first GPS sleeve was actually bundled with a re badged version of TomTom's first PocketPC Navigation application!

It remains to be seen if Mitac will subsume Navman and their products or will maintain them as a separate brand. Mitac themselves have been doing very well recently with an excellent range of PND's and it's difficult to see why they would allow Navman to continue as a seperate entity.

Click here to read the full Yahoo article....
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Darren Griffin

MaFt · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 12:00 pm Post subject:

well, the mitac/mio stuff has been pretty impressive so this should be a good thing really.

wonder then if navman will be the next units to use heading data?!

MaFt

mcogman · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:42 pm Post subject:

MaFt,

Could you explain "heading data" for me please?

As a current user of Navman I will have to make decisions on which manufacturer gets my business when I change so I would like as much info as possible.

I know I won't be able to make a decision until we see if Navman are subsumed into the Mio range but, for example, I do prefer having TMC capability. So I have to look at all the pros and cons for every manufacturer all over again now my expensive 530 with T1 equipped Navman is about to be rendered worthless and un-upgradeable.

MaFt · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:52 pm Post subject:

the mio's are able to use heading data i.e. you only get an audio warning when the camera in question is relevent to your direction of travel. if it's onefor the other side of the road you just get the icon but no audio warning.

it's get rid of lots of false reports!

MaFt

Darren · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 5:56 pm Post subject:

Well some good news, it looks like Mitac will retain Navman as a seperate brand, see this article.
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Darren Griffin

mostdom · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:49 pm Post subject:

mcogman · Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:12 am Post subject:

Thanks for that MaFt, now I understand. That would be really useful - let's hope there is some cross fertilisation of technologies.

As mostdom says, we can all breathe again so perhaps (and only "perhaps") my last paragraph could be scratched!

Eldar · Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:36 am Post subject:

MaFt · Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:03 pm Post subject:

mostdom · Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 2:07 pm Post subject:

These multinational companies are often as interested in market share as they are in profit. Looks good for potential inverstors!

Anyway an injection of new perspective into navman can only be good news for us the customers, can't it??? Smile

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Dom

HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot

robertn · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2005 Posts: 564

I have yet to see a multinational that cares about anything other than profit. Market share is just a way to claim a (near) monopoly position so they can rack up the prices and make more P. - Don't get me wrong, Profit is not a four letter word, but excessive profits that come from one or two large players damages the marketplace.

Unfortunatly the true players who have no competition are map data suppliers TA and Navtech. These guys don't care about who sells PNDs or PDAs etc. They don't give a damn if Mitac dump Navman brand or build it up or keep the status quo. They just want the number of units sold to increase.

They don't even care if the units are all budget/entry level or premium high level units, because the get fixed license fee per unit sold.

So where does this leave us - nothing has changed in the short term and little has changed in the long term. Hopefully Mitac will pool resources and get twice as much development done, maybe even catch up with and over take TomTom(I am an optimist 8O ) More likely they will shut up the Navman engineering divisions and retain the Navman Brand Evil or Very Mad

robertn · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2005 Posts: 564

Jobs Loses At Navman

I hope thats not the wrting on the wall.

TheM · Frequent Visitor Joined: Mar 21, 2005 Posts: 277

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