Hi!
Zum erstenmal, wo ich Konkretes über Zahlen bei NT höre:
2001 110Mio$, damit knapp 70% höher als bei TA, was sicherlich auf die (Noch-)Monopolstellung in USA zurückzuführen sein dürfte (bald nicht mehr
). 30-40% durchschnittl. Wachstum in den letzten 4 Jahren, da kann TA auch mithalten. Für wichtig erachte ich zudem den positiven Ausblick, zumal TA alles bieten kann (z.B. Sprachsteuerung), was NT auch kann:----
Vehicle Navigation Popularity Good For Mapping Company
This page was last updated on Saturday, May 4, 2002
CHICAGO, IL, May 2, 2002 - An article in the Chicago Sun- Times profiles Navigation Technologies and it`s growth despite a tight tech market.
Mapping its own path, Chicago-based Navigation Technologies Corp. has bucked the trends.
In hard times for tech companies, the privately held digital mapmaker has been growing at a rate of 30 percent to 40 percent a year for the last four years, reaching revenues of $110 million in 2001.
And, reversing another pattern, low-profile Navigation Technologies started out in Silicon Valley and moved to Chicago during the Internet boom.
CEO Judson Green, 49, said the growing popularity of vehicle navigation systems has been powering growth at his company and will continue to do so.
"In-vehicle map systems are just taking off in North America," he said.
Only 1.5 percent of U.S. cars, typically luxury models, have such systems now, compared with 7 percent in Europe and a whopping 25 percent in Japan.
Green said major growth is expected in the years ahead as such systems catch on even in economy models.
Navigation Technologies was launched in Silicon Valley in 1985 under the name Karlin & Collins with a countertop kiosk, known as DriverGuide. The system, which debuted in hotels and car rental agencies, enabled customers to enter a starting point and destination, and then print out a copy of driving directions.
In 1987, under new CEO T. Russell Shields, a Chicago entrepreneur and founder of the SEI consultancy here, the company was renamed Navigation Technologies. Shields, an early investor in the company, shifted the focus from the kiosks to developing turn-by-turn digital maps for vehicle navigation systems.
Voice-enabled maps are now available in Germany and the United Kingdom and will be soon in four other countries, including the United States. Users tell the systems where they want to go, and then the system gives them directions. One of the suppliers of the voice technology is Philips Electronics, the Dutch tech company, which owns more than half of Navigation Technologies.
(aus Chicago Sun-Times)
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