TT deelt hiermee ook klappen uit aan diverse low-cost appjes die met OpenStreetMaps werken. ALK (Copilot) zegt dat voor dure high-end apps de vraag niet wegvalt, dat was op Android ook niet het geval.
Winners and Losers
Google is definitely the company that is losing the most today from this Apple product release even if their last week event (read here) tried to mitigate the reach of the Apple launch.
Independent navigation software vendors will also suffer from this Apple’s free turn-by-turn navigation offering even if they are not willing to fully admit it yet.
“Of course any mapping and navigation app that is pre-installed on a device is a potential competitor to established navigation products like CoPilot., explained David Quin, Head of Consumer Applications at ALK technologies.
“However, as we have seen on Android, we are confident that there will continue to be substantial demand for full-featured automotive-grade in-car iOS navigation apps. We have seen strong growth in paid downloads since Google announced free turn by turn navigation (...). Of course, there's no room for complacency and we must continue to innovate to deliver a premium, dependable in-car experience.“
On-board maps are going to be a differentiation, especially outside of the United States. Local content is also going to be an important differentiation factor.
The future of independent vendors is either in high end software offerings or in free software monetized through advertising or premium content and backed by a strong local brand be it a wireless operator, a mapping portal such as MapQuest or Mappy or any other automotive-related company.
One segment also particularly at risk is made of companies offering free navigation based on OpenStreetMap data. [mooi zo!!] Their customers are most likely to switch to Apple software that will offer a better experience based on TomTom maps. Whatever is the new strategy of these independent players, the addressable market for navigation on iPhone has shrinked overnight.
As a sign of this looming danger, today stock market rating firm Baird moves U.S. mobile navigation supplier TeleNav from Neutral to Underperform, halving its price target from $8 to $4.
TomTom
However one navigation player is clearly a winner in this new market landscape, this is TomTom. “This is a big victory for TomTom - so TomTom can leverage Apple-Google animus to its advantage vis-a-vis Nokia,“ commented Roger Lanctot.
In licensing its map data to Apple TomTom is making money from the free offering while still providing a premium offer with onboard maps and its connected services.
To TomTom advantage Apple did not have many alternatives for premium map with global coverage. Either buying them from Nokia or turning to them. While OSM is good enough for positioning a picture on a map (iPhoto), Apple could not use OSM for turn-by-turn navigation.
It is therefore likely that TomTom signed a win-win deal with Apple. The amount of revenue in their licensing division in 4Q 2012 will tell us if this is true or not.
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