MWC 2013 Video: TomTom “Adds Value To Smartphones”

TomTom, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of navigation systems, travelled to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to talk about licensing its maps to app developers and handset vendors.

Our colleagues from Silicon France had a chat with Pieter Gillegot-Vergauwen, Strategic Product Segment director at TomTom, about the company’s business model, crowdsourcing, and selling navigation tools to governments.

Turn by turn

TomTom is a Dutch company that was founded in 1991 to develop business software, and has been providing directions to drivers since 2002. Mobile is not a new market for the company: both Apple and BlackBerry rely on TomTom data to produce their navigation software. TomTom also makes its own apps for Android and iOS.

According to Gillegot-Vergauwen, the digital maps are still evolving, and there are plenty of opportunities to add value to the standard navigation features. He also said that he believes Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) still have a lot of life left in them, and will not be completely replaced by smartphones, at least not for a few more years.

To find out more, watch the video below:

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