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Darren
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Location: Hampshire, UK
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 Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 2:29 pm Post subject: TomTom Celebrates 20th Birthday |
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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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Darren Griffin |
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will7201
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Joined: Nov 27, 2009
Posts: 16
Location: Liverpool, UK
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:05 pm Post subject: TomTom 20yrs |
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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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zebsogo
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Joined: May 17, 2008
Posts: 108
Location: London
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:09 pm Post subject: Re: TomTom 20yrs |
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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
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Navigon 92 Premium Live,TomTom Go 6000,Garmin 2699 LTM-D and a TomTom Go 1005 Live ( For the wife )
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will7201
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Joined: Nov 27, 2009
Posts: 16
Location: Liverpool, UK
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:56 pm Post subject: |
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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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Andy_P
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Joined: Jun 04, 2005
Posts: 19991
Location: West and Southwest London
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:11 pm Post subject: Re: TomTom Celebrates 20th Birthday |
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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!
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Darren
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:21 pm Post subject: Re: TomTom Celebrates 20th Birthday |
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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.
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Andy_P
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Joined: Jun 04, 2005
Posts: 19991
Location: West and Southwest London
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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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.!
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Darren
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:50 pm Post subject: |
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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.
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SteveR
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Posts: 13
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:36 pm Post subject: TomTom |
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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.
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Kar98
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Joined: Nov 25, 2004
Posts: 344
Location: DFW, Texas, USA
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| Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 1:12 am Post subject: Re: TomTom |
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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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technik
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Joined: Mar 18, 2004
Posts: 789
Location: Midlands UK
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| Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 6:58 pm Post subject: Re: TomTom |
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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.
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SpeedCam
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Location: Biggleswade, BEDS
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| Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 12:07 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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Darren
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| Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:28 am Post subject: |
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| SpeedCam wrote: | | 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. |
TomTom had existed for quite some time before, albeit under a different name and it wasn't involved in GPS at that time.
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