Nothing moves the memory market quicker than FUD - Andrew Norwood, Dataquest
|
|
|
Navteq responds to Nav4all shutdown
MAPPING AND NAVIGATION service Navteq has spoken out against Nav4all's claims that it was forced to shut up shop after its data licence agreement was unexpectedly not renewed.
According to Navteq, although it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia, it remains a completely independent unit in order to make sure that it provides equitable terms and conditions for all its customers.
As a result, the company denies any implication that it was under orders from above to end its contract with Nav4all, instead saying it was simply unable to reach an agreement that aligned with its terms and conditions.
Speaking to an Italian gadget blog, Navteq said it doesn't disclose the details of individual contracts, but added that Nav4all's 'surprise' at the decision should have been nothing of the kind as it followed standard practice in the renegotiation process in advance the existing contract's deadline and that everything was scrupulously documented.
However at least one Inquirer reader has sided with Nav4all. Commenting on yesterday's story, a reader claiming to be a customer of Navteq's wrote that "Over the last two years the license fees have increased dramatically, and a heap of new conditions on the use of the data have been applied."
"For example, we are not allowed to aggregate the Navteq data with data from any other provider. The result (and from Nokia's view, the objective) being that we can never provide better coverage or results than Nokia can. If we want to use Nokia's data, we can only use their data."
Quite where the truth lies is probably somewhere in the middle, but one thing is for certain - Nokia benefits either way. If Navteq can keep customers on more expensive contracts, then Nokia gains extra revenue, and if it loses customers there is less competition for Ovi Maps. µ
Share this:
Share
People leave Nokia!
While I still had a nokia N95, I'd bought an external GPS and was using that. The prices on these are coming down drastically. The cost for the external GPS with perpetually licensed maps of western europe was only about 70% of the cost of renewing my one year license to Nokia maps for a single country (UK). Add insult to injury when going to another country (FR), where I had to pay again to use navigation. Further, the screen was bigger than on the phone, and refreshed faster, and the software worked better.
Also, I've recently replaced my Nokia phone with a Google Nexus One.
So, Nokia, pay attention: Keep playing silly buggers with your pet navigation company, and you'll be the only kid left on the playground. Then, you'll only be able to play with yourself...and you'll only have yourself to blame.
Best of luck! (An ex-Nokia customer).