MapmyIndia Compatible With Garmin Devices; Global Map Retailing

By Preethi J on Apr 6th, 2009 |

3 Comments

MapmyIndia has tied up with GPS device maker Garmin to make its maps compatible with the latter’s GPS devices. Its database of maps of 202 cities, 130,000 towns and villages, 450,000 point of interests, and navigate to 640,000 unique reachable destinations across India will be available to Garmin users.

MapmyIndia’s maps are now available for the Nüvi 2xx, 2xxW, 6xx, 7xx and 13xx series by Garmin. They can be bought from here for Rs 7000. This is a high premium over digital maps sold for Rs 1000- 5000 (prices via Economic Times).

The tie-up has been designed to fill an existing demand for updated maps of India by foreign travellers. Rakesh Verma, Managing Director, MapmyIndia said, “There were queries from foreign travellers – both business travellers and tourists – who could not use fully utilize their Garmin devices in India because of lack of good quality digital maps.”

With this, MapmyIndia has launched a drive to collaborate with all existing GPS device makers to ensure compatibility of its maps. It expects this will help it gain a foothold as a map retailer worldwide. Could the company be shifting its focus from the Indian GPS market to the globe? It recently received $9 million in funding to expand overseas. Considering that the Indian GPS market is still in its infancy and has only recently crawled its way into high end handsets, cars and some buses (via IBN Live) and taxis, this is the right move.

In making its maps interoperable, MapmyIndia has done a splendid job in cutting down one of the many challenges that GPS devices have. But why is it putting its own in-car navigation business MapmyIndia Navigator at stake by making its maps available for competing devices?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Category : Location Based Services, MapmyIndia | Tags : garmin, gps, MapMyIndia

« Previous Story | Weekly Digest (27th March-3rd April 2009)

Indiagames Signs Up EA For Games Subscription Service; To Launch Full Game Download Service Soon | Next Story »

http://intensedebate.com/people/codelust shyam somanadh

It is not surprising that MMI has started selling maps for Garmin. If you compare the current number of Garmins out there and the current number of MMI devices that have already been sold, even if MMI manages to sell the data in a year to even 1% of the Garmin user base, it would have a sweet deal on its hands.

INR 7K is very steep, if you consider the fact that this is just map data and not the device itself. Would be interesting to see what kind of agreement they have with Garmin on this. Incidentally, I have seen a Garmin showing a decent level of detail within Delhi (http://tr.im/ij4N). It is cheaper to buy a 180-day license of the phone software at less than INR 2K, though you would wind up paying for data if you are on roaming in India, which you can still work around by preloading the maps.

MMI has a major license-related problem on its devices, which makes them really expensive. Their cheapest device starts at INR13K, while Satnav's most expensive device is at INR 16K. So they can't really compete on price.

From what I understand, the question of mapping data being interoperable does not really arise. Underneath the surface they all share the same shape files and tiles to overlay the details of the location. It just boils down to how do you want to do your distribution of your map data.
baby

MapmyIndia is not clear about how the will be sending the updated maps to Garmin users. It is better to go for mobile phone version, which is always uptodate. But you need mobile phone connectivity all the time.

MapmyIndia Compatible With Garmin Devices; Global Map Retailing

Latest Headlines