Tele Atlas for Garmin?

Remember, Garmin is not the one who loads the maps. I believe they get their maps from Navteq. Send Navteq a report on the missing streets.

http://mapreporter.navteq.com

is the one I have been reporting to. For 3 years its been falling on a deaf ear. I gave up. I'll just eventually change brands to solve my problem.

I don't blame you for changing brands. Of course Garmin is responsible for the maps that they use. Garmin seems not to care that the products that they sell contain components that are incorrect, incomplete, or otherwise inadequate.
Don't give me that baloney that it's not their fault that the maps aren't good. It IS their business to make sure they're good.
Our only recourse is to take our business elsewhere.

I agree that Garmin should be forcing Navteq to keep the maps updated. If Navteq is unwilling to do so, then Garmin should look for maps elsewhere. TomTom does not seem to have a problem keeping their maps updated.

I also am almost at my wits end with Garmin. If Garmin doesn't fix this 4.0 fiasco by the end of this week, my 750 is going back and I will be looking at a different manufacturer.

Maybe if Garmin had waited until say 2009 instead of mid 2008, Navteq might have had enough time to get the new loctions included. Still doesn't makeup for 3 years late. They need to update their pre installed POI's, have yet to see any deleted even from business that have been closed for years. The least they could do is pull all the Krispy Kreme location in CA since the company left 3 yrs ago it is pure torture to see the POI and not be able to actually eat a donut.
If Garmin wants to stay on top they need a system that allows maps to be updated online as often as the Firmware updates.

While Garmin may not own the maps, Garmin has WAY MORE sway with a company such as Navteq than a singular individual. The other point to keep in mind is that you don't buy the GPSr from one company and then buy the maps from another; they are both bought from the same. So in my opinion, this is definitely a Garmin issue. After all, it was ‘directly’ Garmin’s decision to purchase these maps and the GPSr buyer’s ‘indirect’ decision to buy them through Garmin.

I have owned nuvi a couple of months, and it is very disappointing that every software version that I have used has some sort of problem, seems to me they would at least get one version correct.

to the thread, "2009 MAP UPDATES". It sounds as if Garmin dosen't care if they stay in the automobile GPS business or not. They sure are not doing anything to strengthen it.

As I recall, Tom Tom bought Tele Atlas. I don't ever see Tom Tom allowing their data to be used in a Garmin. That was the reason for buying them out.

And prior to the TomTom acquisition of Tele Atlas, Nokia bought Navteq. I would hope that Garmin would be able to influence Navteq when t came to improving the maps, but who knows? Cell phone GPS seems to be the up and coming thing. Maybe Nokia is putting its efforts into accommodating that. But you would think that Navteq's maps would be consistent (good or bad) throughout Nokia's GPS business unit.

I'll bet Navteq has shifted resources to supporting Nokia GPS and installing eye candy like lane view and building outlines because that's what attracts attention in the media.

I had the opposite problem. I owned a Tom Tom for about 2 weeks and took it back because the maps in my area were very inaccurate. Roads that had been around for decades were not there and the streets in my development were there but the names were all messed up. Fortunately, I know where I live because it sure didn't.

However, to give credit where credit is do, it appears that TeleAtlas has finally fixed those issues. I watch the maps in Google Earth (they use TeleAtlas but maps.google.com uses Navteq -- go figure) and, sometime in the last month or so, they have fixed those issues. Maybe it had something to do with the TeleAtlas van I saw driving around one day when I ran some errands at lunch. It was a minivan with cameras mounted on the roof facing in about every direction. It will take some time for those fixes to work their way down to the GPS units but I will be watching. There were some features I really liked on the Tom Tom and, if the maps are getting better, I would be willing to try them again.

Those features are only new to Garmin, because they decided to purchase them from Navteq.

You have to remember that Navigon GPSr's are made by Navteq so thats why they have the newest Navteq Maps with Fresh, and pioneered features like lane assist and reality views. I guess Navigon is a sub of Nokia now and thats their offering into the standalone GPSr market place.

So it looks like Garmin Dropped the ball by not buying up one of them, so now they have to be third in technology and we as Garmin users will have to wait till the map technology filters down. As we are seeing with Lane Assist and reality views that Garmin 7xx is just now bring out. Free lifetime traffic is another feature Navigon has had and Navteq has finally released it to Garmin, however Navteq's Navigon users don't have to see ads on free life lifetime service like us Garmin users do.

So this is what we as Garmin users have to deal with in the future, High prices because Garmin has to pay for it's map technology and really has no control over it either. It's tough being third and Garmin will slip into the number two slot even in sales soon, maybe as soon as the first quarter of next year giving it up to TomTom. And only back from their.

Garmin really blew it when they dropped out of bidding against TomTom for TeleAtlas.

Garmin forced Tom Tom to pay over 4 billion for a mapping company bringing in about 400 million a year. Garmin is never going to be second in the US to Tom Tom. I know it can be frustrating to not have your home address or neighborhood in the mapping detail, but as has been mentioned it is true for all the GPS companies.

TomTom has really been struggling since they bought Tele Atlas for more than 10 times earnings ratio. Using normal acquisition guidelines they paid more than twice what it was worth.

Their shares have fallen 88% in just this year since the purchase.

Quote from Business Week Associated Press article dated October 28, 2008:

"The Tele Atlas acquisition left the company with 1.32 billion euros ($1.65 billion) in debt at the end of the quarter.

Despite the debt load, TomTom revealed it has renegotiated its bank loan, although at a slightly higher interest rate. It must repay 10 percent of the loan at the end of this year and next year.

That eased market fears over TomTom's finances, as analysts and investors had worried declining earnings would put it in danger of defaulting on the loan.

That news sent shares 5 percent higher to 6.04 euros ($7.54) in Amsterdam, although they are still down 88 percent for the year.

"The company feels 'comfortable' with the revised covenants," said Petercam Securities analyst Eric de Graaf, who rates the shares a "reduce."

"The bad news is that they were comfortable with the old covenants at the time as well," he said."

Time will tell, the two map companies can squeeze pretty darned hard. And do have the ability to do so.

You are looking at TomTom sales, You have to look bigger than that, Google and anyone else that uses TeleAtlas maps that TomTom can sell their not so current maps to. Then you have the reason they put out a large sum of cash for TeleAtlas.

And as far as address go, that might be true for companies that don't own the mapping software, do you really think Garmin is going to get #1 maps from Navteq when Navteq has it's own products and those products are using the most current? Look at the bigger picture and past your own Garmin.

How will Garmin compete when they have to buy the maps, and second hand maps at that. The competition will blow them away sooner than you think.

so actually Garmin was the foolish company for not bidding 4.2 billion and controlling their own destiny, and selling maps to Google and their not so new maps to the competitors.

Bob

I think it was a pretty smart move on Garmin's part to force your largest competitor into greatly overpaying for something that now has financially crippled them. Who knows, Garmin may eventually get Tele Atlas for pennies on the dollar. It would not be the first time that a similar thing has happened.

Navteq offered Garmin a long term commitment to supply them their maps and convince them to drop their attempt to purchase Tele Atlas. Navteq needed Garmin's numbers as there own Navigon units are barely more than a small blip on the sales radar and have been no real threat to anyone. I found out quickly that there was a lot more to consider than what some brands offered which were just some neat features and a low price but functioned poorly.

When I was shopping to decide on which brand to buy I went to a store that had all the brands on display and you could actually try them all out. It did not take long to see that Garmin had the best and easiest to read display in bright lighting and was the easiest to use.

Also keep in mind Tele Atlas (TomTom) has now offered to also sell their maps to any and all takers including Garmin.

We just have to sit back and wait and see, what happens in the next year. And keeping in mind that TomTom will sell maps to anyone including garmin, keeping the newest for their stuff.

Bob