Q4 financial results presentation 2/24/09

[mvl]

For those interested, Tomtom is announcing its Q4 financials to the investor community on 2/24/09 at 8am eastern time. Sometimes they announce future products/features in these investor meetings.

See this Link

 

[gatorguy]

In this case, after announcing some unpleasant financial results, TomTom announced they would not be pursuing a mobile app (think iPhone). Instead they've decided they would concentrate on supplying maps to the mobile community along with LBS services. Quite a surprise since TomTom had indicated they had a working off-board navigation application for the iPhone and as little as 4 months ago a mobile app was a priority. They've now decided they don't have the resources to compete with the likes of Garmin and Telenav in the mobile arena, but somehow feel that going to battle with companies like Google and Microsoft with a long history of LBS apps is a better venue to commit their resources to.

 

[mvl]

With the precision available from the live tomtom feedback, I think the value of teleatlas maps will increase dramatically in the marketplace. They have a strategic advantage with speedprofile/IQroutes-based directions that will take Nokia/Navteq a long time to match. After using IQroutes in a city and seeing "good" directions for the first time in my life, I'll never buy another nav system without speed-profile-based data ever again.

I always felt phone-based GPS was a non-starter. Phones are too small to see while driving, and LBS is more valuable to walkers/train-riders.

I hope they expand their auto partnerships and get more in-car (large screen) systems deployed. Because of IQroutes, I have tomtom IQ2 tell me directions in my car, and am totally ignoring my in-car Accord/navteq.

Hopefully tomtom realizes the brand damage they are incurring from the quality control issues (can someone say "stutter"?) and spares application development from the layoffs.

The most interesting part of the presentation is their expected strong sales in 2Q and 4Q 2009 due to new products. Wonder what they will be.

They haven't posted the podcast yet with the Q&A, I look forward to hearing it.

 

[gatorguy]

I've seen a transcript of the meeting, and didn't note any new devices mentioned. What you might be missing is that the pnd market is expected to start a retraction next year, with single device/mobile navigation/communications to be the preferred method of turn-by-turn delivery. By withdrawing themselves from the mobile apps market and instead purely relying on map sales, with some LBS thrown in for good measure, they are handicapping themselves on future offerings. When you consider that tomtom has not offered a truly new hardware platform in about 18 months, I'm not looking for much in the way of pnd development from them in the near term. There's not a lot of financial resources to throw at engineering from all outward appearances. Even TomTom themselves admit they may not be able to meet their loan obligations this year. I do wish them the best of luck and hope they can turn their fortunes around. With equivalent money struggles at Navigon, and Mio with issues of their own, a market dominated by Garmin wouldn't result in a lot of new service offerings.