Mapping road to success

CHICAGO

Getting lost is getting rarer nowadays, and any yahoo with a keyboard or a GPS device can find precise directions or pinpoint the location of an out-of-town landmark.

Now drivers hooked on digital maps are looking for more than streets and turns. They want accurate and up-to-date points of interest such as restaurants, gas stations, hotels, theme parks and more.

For digital mapmakers like Navteq Corp., it’s up to road teams like Ann McNeil and Rich Joyce to deliver.

Like luxury-class explorers, the geographic analysts cruise streets and roads in a tech-laden sport utility vehicle outfitted with a satellite tracking computer, electronic clipboard and rooftop cameras.

“Our customers are wanting more and more information,” said Ms. McNeil, who has driven hundreds of thousands of miles in a decade at Navteq. “We’re expanding all the time.”

It’s all part of a race with Dutch rival Tele Atlas NV to chart the world more accurately and combine maps with other relevant data.

A pioneer of the digital map business, Navteq produces the maps and software found in automobile navigation systems, portable navigation devices made by Garmin Ltd. and other companies, and Internet map sites like AOL’s MapQuest, Google Inc.’s Google Maps and Yahoo Inc.’s Yahoo Maps.

Navteq is the Rand McNally of the 21st century, said Colorado map industry consultant Henry Poirot, and the rapid growth may be just beginning.

Thanks to the Global Positioning System and technology advancements, Navteq is fine-tuning ways to let consumers use a phone or other hand-held device to track their dogs, find where to jog in another city, learn how many calories they will burn doing it, learn where the nearest 24-hour gas stations are and see current traffic and weather conditions. Tele Atlas has its own projects under way.

“There’s a lot of competition going on,” said Thilo Koslowski, an analyst for Gartner Inc. “Both companies are trying to show that their data is better, by being innovative in gathering more detailed information.”

The mapping duel heated up last week with the announcement that Tele Atlas agreed to a $2.6 billion acquisition by TomTom NV, the world’s largest maker of personal navigation devices.

That should make the combined European company a more formidable foe, but Navteq’s stock soared. Analysts said TomTom’s competitors, such as Garmin, may go to the Chicago company for their maps rather than buy from a rival.

Navteq would like to improve its market share, which already includes most of the Internet mapping market and a split of the hand-held device market with Tele Atlas.

Its European rival drives the roads, too. The two companies’ teams even occasionally spot each other covering the same turf.

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