Navteq: "The phone will not replace the sat-nav"

Map company talks in-car displays

1 July 2009 18:10 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Navteq - the company owned by Nokia that's behind the maps and navigation systems in almost every satnav around - has been discussing the future of the PND - the portable navigation device.

Pocket-lint had a chat to the company's vice president, Serge Bussat, who disagrees with most commenters, predicting the death of standalone PND units in favour of mobile phones.

"The phone will not replace the sat-nav", he says confidently, explaining instead that his company's philosophy lies in integrated solutions. Maps that reside in your car dashboard.

Currently, solutions like that are available for high-end cars but not to the majority of consumers. The issue being that cars have a much longer development cycle - many years - than most portable satnav units. "The phone is an intermediate step", he adds.

The company also spoke about competition from Google, who offers free maps through its API. "We invest in good quality maps and content, which is navigable. We collect over 200 attributes of information at every junction".

"It's not about building the map, it's about building the layers on top of it". By layers, Bussat is referring to the applications that the company collects and judges every year at its "LBS Challenge" awards at Mobile World Congress.

"Christmas could be a huge high for navigation", Busset says. Given the popularity of mapping apps on phones, dedicated satnav units and with a future that involves in-car embedded mapping, it's no surprise Navteq is predicting a rosy future.

Full tags

Car And GPS, Navteq, GPS software, Phones