Desire Z and HD to come with TomTom maps

[Guest squirreleater]

Title says it all really!

According to Marketwatch HTC and TomTom have struck a deal to put Tomtom maps onto HTC smartphones, the first phones being the aforementioned Desire Z and HD.

This is only good news with no downside, TomTom is recognised as a world leader in Sat navs, so to get them on our phones for free is a massive plus.

Many thanks to @christonge .

Below is the text pasted from the original source:

AMSTERDAM & TAOYUAN, Taiwan, Oct 20, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- TomTom, the world's leading provider of location and navigation solutions, and HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today announced they are combining strengths to deliver superb navigation and location solutions on HTC smartphones.

HTC Locations, HTC's new mapping experience, comes preloaded with TomTom's location-rich maps, resulting in a zero-wait navigation experience. HTC Locations is initially available on the new HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z smartphones in Europe and Asia and will be extended to a wide variety of future smartphones and geographies.

"I am very pleased to be providing HTC customers with TomTom's accurate location and navigation content on their phones wherever they are. The beauty of it is that the maps are preloaded and instantly available at users' fingertips. For the first time, this makes the power of TomTom navigation content available 'in-pocket' for HTC smartphone users", says Maarten van Gool, Managing Director of TomTom Licensing.

"This partnership with TomTom underlines HTC's commitment to giving our customers an innovative navigation experience that is natural and provides unique enhancements for common navigation needs," said John Wang, Chief Marketing Officer, HTC Corporation. "HTC and TomTom have worked closely to optimize these amazing capabilities on HTC smartphones through our new HTC Locations application."

Maps and location content come preloaded on HTC Locations while turn-by-turn navigation can be purchased and downloaded through HTC Locations or HTC Sync.

- END -

[Guest removed-14]

What is the benefit of using TomTom over Google Maps/Navigation? Are the maps stored on the SD card rather than downloaded on the fly over the mobile network?

Will Orange simply remove this when they get round to putting on Orange Maps!? :P

[Guest flyingscotno1]

Sounds interesting. Of course Google Maps uses TomTom data at the moment.

Having a TomTom Sat-Nav they are the best sat-navs on the market at the moment, the IQ routing and the traffic information can be reasonably accurate and good. I remember ignoring a warning that the M6 was closed at J15 on the Sat-Nav because there were no signs on the motorway, how I regreted that when I got to J16 and saw M6 closed after next junction! :P Google nav is good but overall can't keep up the at the moment with the stand alone device.

If this can, given cost bridge the gap and avoid data charges might give copilot a run.

[Guest Shiva Ramabadran]

Tomtom maps are on the SDcard, but they are navigation oriented, don't have ariel views etc., and have to be licensed per device. Not sure I like this.

[Guest Loconinja]

Does this mean that the full TomTom Navigator will be available for Android soon?

[Guest tcpaulh]

Does this mean that the full TomTom Navigator will be available for Android soon?

I fear it means the opposite. TomTom are afraid of piracy so have rolled out a 'not quite' Navigator for new HTC Android devices. I hope I'm wrong. The first reviews should be interesting.

[Guest harolds5]

What is the benefit of using TomTom over Google Maps/Navigation? Are the maps stored on the SD card rather than downloaded on the fly over the mobile network?

The upside (if you want to call it that) is the maps are on the device (uses a lot of additional memory, and not updated).

The downside is if you want updated maps it's going to cost you.

Where with Google Maps (and a good data plan) you get updated maps at no additional cost.

[Guest JD1973]

This is confusing as Route66 issued a press release last month saying they are supplying the turn by turn maps for HTC Locations, see http://www.66.com/route66/index.php?cid=UK...&ssact=1723

[Guest JD1973]

I wonder if what the above actually means is that Route66 are now using Tele Atlas map data, as I see they are listed as a Tele Atlas content partner http://www.teleatlas.com/PartnerPrograms/Partners/TA005252

[Guest frottage]

I have the Desire HD - most frustrating of all for me is that the HTC navigation does not support postcode entry

the application displays Route66 in the bottom corner of the screen

[Guest T39andcounting]

I'd like to see a TomTom application available in the Market Place. I currently use Google Navigation and the CoPilot app.

CoPilot is good when you have a crap signal, and/or are happy with the routing. It's also better at finding a new route if you divert. However the traffic info is not worth the subscription, and it strongly resists any major route changes - I traveled to Nottingham, and it refused to take me up the M11 route instead of M1, which is just as quick. For those times, and/or if I want to see satellite view (which TBH is rather distracting!) I use Google Navigation.

I've used TomTom as a stand alone unit, and on WinMo before, and it does seem better to use than CoPilot. Also, the traffic HD beats the competition hands down from what I've seen.

I just hope if/when they bring it out, they price it reasonably.

[Guest El Nino9]

its not tomtom as the above users have said. its route 66 maps

bit of a disappointment after the hype of tomtom maps to be honest.

but more then happy with the desire z and desire hd

as paul says "shame on you htc for going though great lengths"-about the locked bootloader

[Guest BrumBrum74]

Any news telling if TomTom actually will arrive for Android or not?

[Guest kathe]

I think future is going to be of TomTom because here we can see google is using TomTom maps, by this its sure the TT navigator on android is coming soon!

Edited September 14, 2011 by kathe