TomTom stops selling its GPS, the company is no match for Waze or Maps.

[Willy875]

Faced with competition from mobile applications such as Google Maps, Plans or Waze, TomTom, a major player in navigation, has decided to stop the sale of its GPS in the United States and Canada, where demand has fallen.

TomTom, one of the world's leading navigation companies, has announced that it will stop selling its GPS devices in the United States and Canada, due to falling demand and the rise of mobile applications like Google Maps, Plans or Waze.

TomTom partially withdraws from the GPS market in the face of competition from mobile applications
TomTom's GPS, which once offered safer and more convenient navigation than paper maps, has become obsolete in the face of the benefits of mobile apps, which run on the smartphones most people already own, which update automatically with to the Internet and which provide real-time information on traffic, accidents, works and speed cameras.

The Dutch company explained in emails sent to its customers that this was a commercial decision, and that it would continue to offer its mobile navigation solutions, TomTom GO Navigation and TomTom AmiGO, which are compatible with Android, iPhone and CarPlay.

TomTom GPS will remain available at select retailers in the United States and Canada while supplies last, but will no longer be sold on the company's website. Customers who already own a GPS from the brand will be able to continue to benefit from technical support and software updates, but we do not know for how long.

TomTom did not specify whether this decision also affected its sales in Europe, where the company continues to offer its GPS on its website. But that won't be long in coming: it is now focusing on other market segments, such as mapping and location services for businesses, but also AI, since TomTom and Microsoft are launching a voice assistant for cars, with the AI from OpenAI.

 

[dhn]

Thanks Willy. Not surprising.

 

[DavidB@#8]

Faced with competition from mobile applications such as Google Maps, Plans or Waze, TomTom, a major player in navigation, has decided to stop the sale of its GPS in the United States and Canada, where demand has fallen.

TomTom, one of the world's leading navigation companies, has announced that it will stop selling its GPS devices in the United States and Canada, due to falling demand and the rise of mobile applications like Google Maps, Plans or Waze.

TomTom partially withdraws from the GPS market in the face of competition from mobile applications
TomTom's GPS, which once offered safer and more convenient navigation than paper maps, has become obsolete in the face of the benefits of mobile apps, which run on the smartphones most people already own, which update automatically with to the Internet and which provide real-time information on traffic, accidents, works and speed cameras.

The Dutch company explained in emails sent to its customers that this was a commercial decision, and that it would continue to offer its mobile navigation solutions, TomTom GO Navigation and TomTom AmiGO, which are compatible with Android, iPhone and CarPlay.

TomTom GPS will remain available at select retailers in the United States and Canada while supplies last, but will no longer be sold on the company's website. Customers who already own a GPS from the brand will be able to continue to benefit from technical support and software updates, but we do not know for how long.

TomTom did not specify whether this decision also affected its sales in Europe, where the company continues to offer its GPS on its website. But that won't be long in coming: it is now focusing on other market segments, such as mapping and location services for businesses, but also AI, since TomTom and Microsoft are launching a voice assistant for cars, with the AI from OpenAI.

I posted this in early December 2022, so has not come as any surprise:

"Following their statement from many years ago, about becoming a global force for traffic management, they have probably decided that they have sucked the personal product market dry and are to focus on corporate customers - models being followed, Microsoft, Dell, Meta perhaps??
Further evidence for this opinion? Their move away from providing stand-alone hardware in favour of a smartphone app? Soon they won't have in-warranty hardware support obligations."

The next question is, When do they plan (because they will be planning it) to stop navigation services to the large and until recently loyal community of their hardware devices?

The problem with the likes of Waze is the large amount of personal information which they suck up, that has nothing to do with the service it offers. Approach these with your eyes wide open.

 

[canderson]

Yes, I see what the market thinks over the last year, too.

The problem isn't one of TomTom having hardware - Garmin is far more heavily invested in the hardware side than TomTom - it's having the RIGHT hardware for a better mix of applications. Many of us have been trying to explain that for years.


TomTom: P/E ratio = ZERO (No P/E when you lose money)

Garmin: P/E ratio = 22.74 (Garmin actually makes money)

 

[canderson]

The next question is, When do they plan (because they will be planning it) to stop navigation services to the large and until recently loyal community of their hardware devices?

For the consumer market, it seems that their grand plan is to sell maps to those that supply the service, and secondarily, to sell services associated with the TT apps.

 

[JuergenAMS]

As a leader in location technology, TomTom is committed to providing consumers and businesses globally with the best navigation solutions and personal navigation devices.

Over the past decades, TomTom has sold millions of Personal Navigation Devices in the United States. Last year we decided to discontinue the sale of personal navigation devices in the US. We offer US consumers our mobile navigation solutions, TomTom GO Navigation and TomTom AmiGO, which are compatible with Android including Android Auto and iPhone including Apple CarPlay. Of course, we will continue to provide owners of TomTom PNDs with consumer service and all updates for the life of their devices.

TomTom remains strongly committed to its PND business in its home market in Europe with sat-nav devices for cars, trucks, and motorcycles.

 

[canderson]

TomTom remains strongly committed to its PND business in its home market in Europe with sat-nav devices for cars, trucks, and motorcycles.

Yes, for Europe, they're still developing product. In the NAM and other non-Euro markets, it looks like we're 'done'.

Garmin (whose annual revenue is about 9X that of TomTom) caters to a much wider GPS device market than TomTom does, so they can weather loses in profit on the automotive side more easily. Garmin makes their real money on product lines that TomTom gave up on (e.g., fitness, where Garmin made 23% of their revenue last year) or product lines that TomTom could have but never pursued (handheld units, where Garmin made 31% of their revenue last year, along with marine and aviation devices). Garmin is a hardware company. They 'rent' their maps from others.

While it's probably a good thing that TomTom has the investment in the map business ("Location Technology" in their financial reports), and contrary to what some might guess, that's where they've been losing big money.

TomTom is far less explicit in reporting sources of revenue in their reports than Garmin, so it's difficult to pin down what is really making and losing them money.

"Consumer" (which is now less than 1/5 of TT's revenue stream) doesn't tell us numbers for PND vs. PND subscriptions, vs. phone app subscriptions, for example.

That said:
TomTom lost money in their massive "Location Technology" business, but actually made a little on the "Consumer" side. Evidently they could only make that work for them in Europe? Granted, about 1/2 of Garmin's total sales are in the U.S., but a solid 33% of their sales are in Europe/Africa, and a surprising 16% of their sales are in the APAC region, where TomTom also seems to have given up hope. TomTom never came close to the same 33% penetration of their primary competitor's NAM market. You can blame either the hardware or the marketing job or some other factor, but one succeeded where the other failed.

 

[DavidB@#8]

Yes, I see what the market thinks over the last year, too.

The problem isn't one of TomTom having hardware - Garmin is far more heavily invested in the hardware side than TomTom - it's having the RIGHT hardware for a better mix of applications. Many of us have been trying to explain that for years.


TomTom: P/E ratio = ZERO (No P/E when you lose money)

View attachment 6055

Garmin: P/E ratio = 22.74 (Garmin actually makes money)

View attachment 6056

" - it's having the RIGHT hardware for a better mix of applications"
I don't know the first thing about Garmin. But this sentiment generally leads to single-point dependence and single-point failure; viz national headlines when online banking fails; Europe's sole dependence on Russia for gas; Red Sea and Suez Canal for global shipping. Our naivety enables others to determine and constrain our futures.

 

[Hamradionut]

Doesn't supise me. I own the 550 discovery and many times I have been unhappy with the routes it takes me. It will cut me through a residential area just to save a mile instead of keeping me on a main road. Also with the 550 I have been unable to update or change anything while it's connected to my laptop except the voices. I wasn't aware it was a wifi only unit or I would have never purchased it. Then when I do update the unit via a high speed wifi connection it take forever. Just yesterday a 9.5Mb update took over 2 hrs to complete. I have owned many Tom Tom GPS over the years and this one is the worst.

 

[DavidB@#8]

Doesn't supise me. I own the 550 discovery and many times I have been unhappy with the routes it takes me. It will cut me through a residential area just to save a mile instead of keeping me on a main road. Also with the 550 I have been unable to update or change anything while it's connected to my laptop except the voices. I wasn't aware it was a wifi only unit or I would have never purchased it. Then when I do update the unit via a high speed wifi connection it take forever. Just yesterday a 9.5Mb update took over 2 hrs to complete. I have owned many Tom Tom GPS over the years and this one is the worst.

I have a well dated GO1000 a GO6000 (need PC link for updates) and a quite recent GO Premium (WiFi).
Both GOs take that amount of time to update only one section of Euro map. Yet the WiFi versions were marketed for speed of updates.
All these stories have been telling me that TT wants out of all hardware liabilities.