As everyone and their mama getting an app store these days, why would TomTom be any difference. They aren’t – the navigation technology developer said it will have its own app storefront by the end of this year. The news comes on heels of the launch of TomTom Go 1000 Live device, which comes with a brand new WebKit-based software.
In an interview to Pocket-lint, TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn said they have a great infrastructure on place and the timing is right to move on to new software architecture that will apparently support apps both on the device and the backend. The company will collaborate with third-party developers to offer new location-based apps.
The question remains whether this move could save TomTom and other personal navigation device makers with giants like Nokia and Google offering free navigation services. Personally I believe there will be room for premium service offering for the next few years, after which pretty much everyone will have a GPS-enabled phone with navigation capabilities. We’ll definitely keep watching the market and keep you folks in the loop. Stay tuned…
[Via: Pocket-lint]