[OSM-talk] Fwd: Nav4All navigation shut down by Navteq

[Ulf Möller]

An iPhone app maker in Germany had the same problem, and they're now 
switching to OSM.

Here's a news report and their statement (in German):

http://www.handelsblatt.com/technologie/mobile-welt/navigon-gegen-skobbler-kriegszustand-in-naviland;2486799
http://blog.skobbler.de/2009/12/die-neue-karte-osm/

John Smith schrieb:
> Anyone feel like promoting OSM?
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Nav4All <noreply at nav4all.com>
> Date: 31 January 2010 12:55
> Subject: Nav4All navigation shut down by Navteq
> 
> 
> Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 28-01-2010 16:30 GMT+1
> 
> Subject: Nav4All navigation shut down by Navteq
> 
> Letter to 27,625,631 Nav4All navigation customers
> 
> Dear Customers,
> 
> It is with the deepest regret that we hereby notify you that the
> global navigation of Nav4All and the Tracking & Tracing will go
> offline in 3 days. The reason for the same is that the data licence
> agreement with Navteq (a 100% Nokia subsidiary) was not extended, in
> a totally unexpected manner. It is not possible to implement data
> from another supplier in our Nav4All systems within the short term.
> The Nav4All navigation system was developed for Navteq data. Nav4All
> has therefore been constrained to stop.
> 
> We greatly regret the fact that we have to suspend the operation of
> our service. With your help, we have developed Nav4All into a global
> product with 27.5 million users in 56 languages, in 5 years. This has
> made Nav4All the largest navigation supplier. This large number of
> users also has to do with the fact that Nav4All works on hundreds of
> different mobile telephones of many makes such as Blackberry, Sony
> Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, Android, HTC, Nokia, LG, Iphone, Ipod
> etc.
> 
> After 5 years of testing and market development, we witnessed rapid -
> in fact, exponential - growth during the last two years. That growth
> was reported in the licence reports to Navteq. In mid-December 2009,
> the global coverage was extended to include the Philippines, Morocco
> and Kenya.
> 
> Please contact the Nav4All support desk in case you have any
> questions: www.nav4all.com/support. If there is any further
> information from Nav4All concerning the subject of this letter, the
> same will be published on our website: www.nav4all.com. For reasons
> of privacy, Nav4All does not have the email addresses of all its
> customers, and we therefore request you to forward this email to the
> maximum extent possible, in order to ensure that everyone is
> informed.
> 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> Hennie J.M. Groot Koerkamp (CEO)
> 
> Nav4All BV
> 
> Keizersgracht 62-64
> 
> 1015 CS Amsterdam NL
> 
> The text of this e-mail will be available on our website as soon as
> possible in the following languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian,
> Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Indonesian.