IFA 2011 : No TomTom for Windows Phone 7

September 3, 2011 | By Edward

I dropped by to, rather big, TomTom stand at IFA 2011 trade show (such local tiny German trade show that happens to be bigger than US American CES) and there a press relations guy from TomTom company, named aptly, I am not kidding you, Tom Henkel (second on the left on the photo):

… told me what is the situation with TomTom apps:

* TomTom is not even working on TomTom for Windows Phone 7 or 7.5 or whatever because TomTom thinks that tiny market share of Windows Phone does not justify any efforts

* TomTom however is working pro-actively now on Android version of their TomTom navigation apps

* apart from TomTom for iPhone, that is extremely popular, TomTom recently have released TomTom designed especially for iPad

… so that’s it! I was trying to convince him that there are 5+ million Windows Phone 7 users and that soon Nokia will join the Windows Phone party and Nokia will start releasing Windows Phone 7.5 phones, then he said that according to him Nokia is over, Nokia has no future, so I am not convincing and I should crawl back to the cave from which I came. But he was clearly underlining 2 things: TomTom for iPad is out, TomTom for Android is under heavy development. However nobody is even moving a finger at TomTom to develop TomTom app for Windows Phone.

Sorry. Don’t kill the messenger (me).

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Sebastiaan den Boer

The thing is, big companies on’t want to waste money. However I would buy 1, no matter the costs. It will have to be better than current apps for Windows Phone though. A phone is something you have with you where ever you go (except the shower).

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=514988542 Adam Baker

unless u own a IS12T

but anyways who cares about TomTom, I sure as hell don’t

Anonymous

What a wonderful misleading title. I bet you can even imagine all the hits you get with this one. Congrats.
http://twitter.com/TheBigM72 Samil Shah

Chicken and egg situation, they won’t build the apps until the market share comes. The market share won’t come until they build the apps
http://twitter.com/rd3d Ian Walker

Wow, that seems really short sighted. Hopefully someone senior at MS will talk to someone senior at TomTom (Does Brandon Watson have to do everything?)
http://davepermen.net davepermen

gladly, we’ll have navigon, and bing+ovi maps in the future. no need for tomtom. hever had a need for them (garmin nüvi doing it’s job perfectly well, and is now navigon, too, afaik)
Markus Miertschink

Not surprising. Porting over such a big app is maybe a really big efford (moneywise) – and if there are only a few million devices out ther – and only maybe 10% buys it – it would be not profitable at all.
If Nokia is dead or not will be seen in a year.
See how slow TT is moving to Android – and THEY are selling the devices like crazy…
TT seems to be more focussed on the stand alone devices with their onw hardware (I bought such one and its quite nice). A feature-less solution for a phone would be great – but we get that anyways from Nokia soon…
Markus Miertschink

Yep, Wmpower seems to use that kind of advertising from time to time.
IFA is not really a “tiny” tradeshow. Its one of the biggest consumer electronic show worldswide…
Anonymous

What else is this guy going to say other than “Nokia has no future”? Competition from Nokia’s mapping solution is probably the biggest reason Tom Tom wouldn’t bother with the WP platform. Mapping solutions are becoming so ubiquitous with low margins, I think Tom Tom has a pretty dim future.

Besides, is there really that much demand for Tom Tom on WP7 given the (presumably) cheaper alternatives already available, or is my view too US-centric? What do European WP7 users think?

Anonymous

That your view is too US-centric
But if Nokia Maps – the whole offline suite – comes to all windows phones, well… that would change everything.
the-hq

Free Nokia Maps is going to rape their product anyways. So just give a flying fuck for TomTom

http://twitter.com/gauchov6 Martien

Shouldn’t the title of the article be “No TomTom for Windows Phone 7″?

Anyway, I’m happy Navigon will introduce their app for WP7 soon, let the short sighted TT people eat their dust…
http://twitter.com/gauchov6 Martien

Shouldn’t the title of the article be “No TomTom for Windows Phone 7″?

Anyway, I’m happy Navigon will introduce their app for WP7 soon, let the short sighted TT people eat their dust…
http://twitter.com/OmegaRa Shaun Sommer

he’s going to feel stupid when WP starts gaining ground and marketshare.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZWIQU6F5MNQWGAIOKNHSCSJFDE Brian

Why would he – he never said that WP7 might not gain market share, only that its market share now was too small for them to be interested.

http://twitter.com/hoekstras Sake

As a fellow dutchman, TomTom only just went to develop for Android.
It’s a slow moving company and also the company is not doing good money wise. Their share dropped a LOT!. I liked Navigon way better in a 1to1 comparison with TomTom and it was clear the software fails compared to the competition. Only advantage would be for the ones that are familiar with the TomTom interface. TomTom main focus seems to be integration directly in the car manufacterer’s dashboard. I would not be surprised when TomTom is no more in a couple of years.
Sad thing to say by a dutch man about a company with the roots in his own country.
http://twitter.com/hoekstras Sake

As a fellow dutchman, TomTom only just went to develop for Android.
It’s a slow moving company and also the company is not doing good money wise. Their share dropped a LOT!. I liked Navigon way better in a 1to1 comparison with TomTom and it was clear the software fails compared to the competition. Only advantage would be for the ones that are familiar with the TomTom interface. TomTom main focus seems to be integration directly in the car manufacterer’s dashboard. I would not be surprised when TomTom is no more in a couple of years.
Sad thing to say by a dutch man about a company with the roots in his own country.
Anonymous

who cares about tomtom, now that nokia is onboard?
Anonymous

Seems to me that the only thing Edward is reporting from this event is negativity for WP7. We could of gotten someone from Android camp or IOS camp to do this for free….just saying. Same thing from his article “Microsoft stand + Windows Phone general situation”. I am sure you could focus on the positive things happening at this event.

Anonymous

well i dont agree with you. Unfortenly that’s the case now. Almost no one is caring about wp7 which is sad.

Mike P

Can’t blame anyone but MS.

I like my WP7… but the way things are going the platform is not going anywhere unless they start releasing updates faster, with actual real phones. The line up for WP7.5 sucks. To be quite blunt. I dont see anything appealing like the Omnia 7 which was released. And even that phone has enough issues unrelated to WP7.

I don’t want to be on WP8 without having all the features I need for WP7.5

Anonymous

There may well be little market share [currently] for WP7, but at least we are lucky that Microsoft is doing what is necessary for the platform; I.E. concentrating on working on the platform, updating the platform, creating the necessary foundation tools for working on WP7. Creating Cross-platform tolls for porting apps over, getting major business/developers to work on developing apps for the platform [or even paying/developing them on behalf of others] Providing a Roadmap of the development schedule, ETC. So even if mindshare is still very low. I’m currently satisfied.
The foundation is solid and things, even if they are less than optimum now, will indeed get better. Maybe/definately not as fast as we’d like, but, as the saying goes, “patience is a virtue” and based on the work they [microsoft] have done to date, I’m Convinced that they will get there. And when they do, it won’t be on the basis of having copied Apple, neither will it follow the meteoric [but ulimately flawed, and maybe doomed] rise of Android, but it will be due to the patient solid foundational groundwork that Microsoft have layed.

Mike P

You are very much correct Bugbog!!! I cannot wait till MS start leveraging their Voice TellMe search across all their platforms. The whole ecosystem will profit. MS seem to be really aiming for the long term here but it also becomes apparent that in some departments they lag behind.

Take the MMS configuration issue as one of the obvious examples.

Then there are many examples where MS can propel their platform (such as the Zune player/background/bio info) but doesn’t.. simply because they are not making basic services available for other countries. I am not just talking about localized services but also stuff like the Album recognition in Zune. Why does my US import Sting album not get the US info that is available if I am in Germany or the UK.

This might change in the future with windows 8 but I am somehow doubtful that they can leverage localization services fast enough.

From a user perspective: Give us all services .. even if they are in english

From a long term strategic perspective they are doing a good job but messing up things in the short term.

http://www.gadgeterija.net Denis Jelec

Reality is such – and it is pretty bad. Why bother covering only positives (!?), this (fortunately) is still not a cultofmac replica.

Anonymous

Seems to me that the only thing Edward is reporting from this event is negativity for WP7. We could of gotten someone from Android camp or IOS camp to do this for free….just saying. Same thing from his article “Microsoft stand + Windows Phone general situation”. I am sure you could focus on the positive things happening at this event.
Richard Durishin

Wait. TomTom have not yet released an Android app? Android? Why did you even talk to this fool at all? Clearly, TomTom have no crystal ball regarding mobile OS futures.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZWIQU6F5MNQWGAIOKNHSCSJFDE Brian

Don’t forget that iOS users are much more likely to pay for a quality app than are Android users, so my take would be that TomTom’s crystal ball works just fine.

Anonymous

Wrong. To not have an Android app available while GPS hardware sales are tanking, shows how backward thinking GPS companies are. Companies like TomTom will be sold or out of business in 5 years.
Anonymous

Windows phone 7 users are renowned as number 1 for paying more for their apps, we pay for what we get, better apps and better OS

Richard Durishin

Wait. TomTom have not yet released an Android app? Android? Why did you even talk to this fool at all? Clearly, TomTom have no crystal ball regarding mobile OS futures.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JFRSB7FFT2UK2MD4VIW7O5IRUQ kim

In my opinion Tom Tom is a dying company. TomTom a slow moving company and their soft look terribly outdated…
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JFRSB7FFT2UK2MD4VIW7O5IRUQ kim

This guy is rather rude and arrogant. I think he just forgot that TomTom is a minor company compared to Microsoft and Nokia. I suppose he will feel rather stupid in 2 or 3 years.
Anonymous

“…then he said that according to him Tom Tom is over, Tom Tom has no future, so I am not convincing and I should crawl back to the cave from which I came.”

There, I fixed it for him.
DevStar

No one mentioned this, but Microsoft is suing Tom Tom right now over its use of Linux. I could see Tom Tom deciding not to support the fledgling platform run by the company that is attacking their core product line (stand alone GPS units).

http://www.facebook.com/Herman.van.der.Blom Herman Van Der Blom

only a part of it. i think its the FAT32 part. you can use (micro) SD cards in your camera, smarthpones, mp3 players without formatting and ready to use in a PC but the technology is patended by Microsoft. So the manufacturers have to pay 5$ a unit or so for that. Its not much i think, I have a Canon EOS with 32Gb card, easy switching between camera and PC that way. So tomtom has to pay or use Linux EXT

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MTTBHGVKMMCWEUXPTGEX4SIJY4 Post

I have a feeling TomTom will be gone before Nokia. At least in the consumer business. It is already a pathetic shadow of itself.

http://ceoutlook.com/2011/07/22/tomtom-reports-%E2%80%9Csteep%E2%80%9D-decline-in-u-s-pnd-market/
A Andrei

Excuse my ignorance but I haven’t heard about TomTom(what a catchy name!). Seriously.

I did hear about Nokia and Microsoft.
Avatar Roku

Between Garmin, Navigon, and Nokia apps on Windows Phone 7 who the hell really cares about TomTom?
http://twitter.com/HurtL0ck3r Ali

why android? android users look for free stuff n shit i.e. google maps with navigation. so why would they opt for a 60+ navigation solution?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UFTUS4F7U72MSYFFV7ZITND6TM Valk

Ha, who needs ‘em? I use the awesome turn by turn directions added in Mango. It blows away TomTom and I don’t have to pay to update my maps. I gave my old TomTom 720 to my Mom, but the UI is such crap that she couldn’t figure it out. Let’s face it, TomTom is a dead man walking.
http://profiles.google.com/ee2718 admin 1

Windows Phone 7 has 1% of the market in terms of sales. Android has 52%. Who do you think any sane person will develop for first? I am sure Windows Phone 7 versions will come, but only later and only when there is enough of a user base to justify it – perhaps the end of 2012 when Windows 8 is out might be the time for Tom Tom to rethink.

With regard to Nokia, it is likely that Nokia’s smartphone market share will slip to 9% or less by the time their Windows Phone 7s ship – at least that is what is being predicted by independent sources. Given that other manufacturers have not managed to to sell Windows Phone 7 due to customer apathy, I am not sure why some people expect Nokia to be able to do so and why they think Nokia’s existing customers to all automatically switch to Nokia’s Windows phones when they need to buy a new phone.

Looks to me like Tom Tom’s stance is just hard headed practicality, plus the fact that Tom Tom is a small company with limited resources.

Anonymous

and what make you think anyones bothered if they do or not, tom tom in the uk has the worst reputation of all navigation software, a poor product we WP7 users do not need. Garmin and OVi are far superior. As for NOKIA, it’s WP7 phones are justa round the cornerand its reputation around the world for quality is unsurpassed. One thing is certain it will never build dodgy androids!

http://www.facebook.com/darren.brade Darren Brade

Remember this is the company that created a version of the app for the HTC Diamond and only allowed users to have it installed when brought from a German carrier. They refused to sell it commercially on grounds that there were too many people pirating their earlier Windows Mobile versions.

12 months later they finally released it to people outside of Germany, probably because so many people had pirated the german version because that was the only way to get it.

TomTom are only really interested in selling GPS hardware, they are not in it for the software market.

http://www.facebook.com/darren.brade Darren Brade

plus it can’t really compete with Navigon, Copilot and the likes.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1160897705 William F.X. O’Neill

well i guess i wont be interested in tomtom then
http://www.facebook.com/people/Vladislav-Rakov/100000313410890 Vladislav Rakov

I build my apps using snappii.com This web service offers a great variety of templates that can be easily altered and you can upload your own icons, colour schemes and add tabs you wish.
Hubert Hammack

You folks do realize a couple of years ago that Microsoft sued Tom Tom over Linux and patent issues. Tom Tom eventually settled by paying patent licensing fees. That could be one issue.

But honestly, even if Tom Tom was available, I wouldn’t give it the time of day. Garmin is better. Navigon is better. Plus with Bing Maps and Nokia maps, I have no need of Tom Tom.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LLJLEPANRGRJAKYQS4RVT7OQTE Jean

Oh fuck tomtom, apple and google shit!
Microsoft rules. end of story.
http://www.facebook.com/Herman.van.der.Blom Herman Van Der Blom

i have a nokia lumia 800. bought for 60e navigon, works great. was a loyal tom tom user on windows mobile. my nokia is super. great hardware, great software. tom tom gambled and lost and when they will realize that it will be to late and navigon has the lead. already tmobile rushed in to sell nokia’s because of the great succes of the lumia series. windows phone 7 is great. example: i downloaded a ringtone app. choose fast and furious, downloaded it and told it to be my ringtone. no difficult menu choices whatever. the way wp7 works is natural like it should be and those phones will sell itself. not because of clever marketing but just because its by fare better as the rest.