News

It looks as though everyone is getting a Car Navigation device for Christmas. All of a sudden we have gone from geek toy to must have and it's not just men who are getting car navigation devices for Christmas. I've checked out the stores and spoken to people looking at them and often it has been men buying Navman or TomTom devices for their partners.

Car nav sales have gone through the roof and we seem to have raced ito the early majority phase so fats that most people haven't even noticed the transition. A common thread is that so many holidays are ruined by stress caused when people get lost and the common theme of men don't ask for directions and women can't read maps has resurfaced.

One man in a JB Hi-Fi store told me that buying a car navigation unit had saved his marriage and another told me that his wife had her freedom back. She had become so intimidated by aggressive drivers giving her a hard time when she was in the wrong lane and not being able to find her way around, that she simply stopped driving.

Another myth that has been dispelled is that navigation is hard to use. Many people staved off buying a unit because they struggle to manage the functionality of their phone and had determined there was no way they could handle a navigation system. Navigation has come a long way over the last few years and today's devices come with touch screens and are very intuitive.

Whilst Navman and TomTom are the clear leaders in the market, many other brands are eyeing up New Zealand and there will be even more choice next year. The common thread is the quality of the map data and GeoSmart remains the only company offering a full turn restriction database of New Zealand, having flown and driven virtually every public road in New Zealand. This data has provided a wealth of information including all the one way streets, no left or right turns, speed restrictions, road controls and geometry and much more. Another major asset that GeoSmart offers is a huge range of Points of Interest from public toilets and ATM's through to shopping, food and beverage, petrol and accomodation. This database is growing daily.

It is very exciting to see all the hard work that the GeoSmart  team has done, now delivering the results we predicted. Of course they never stop. We have a large team of professionals updating New Zealand maps and data on a daily basis.