Last year (See TomTom on the road to nowhere) I related how I was in a taxi going to a meeting alongside a girl who was directing the taxi driver with her smartphone. When my phone rang it was Murad Ahmed from The Times asking for an 'instant comment' about TomTom’s warning as they reported a 19% fall in sales in Q3 and news of a 10% cut in their workforce.
My instant quote – See SatNav devices on the road to nowhere - was “I really don’t see much hope for stand-alone sat-nav devices. In five years’ time, I don’t think we will even talk about them. They will be as dead as the fax machine.”
I was clearly wrong. I doubt it will take 5 years.
Last night TomTom reported a further 31% decline in sales in Q4 which resulted in another 16% drop in their share price. Although TomTom are trying to move away from standalone satnav units towards services, they just cannot do this fast enough to stem the rapid move towards satnav on smartphones.
Methinks that we have another Kodak in the making