inspirator schreef op 18 november 2014 21:36:
TomTom (Buy): Feedback from Telematics Munich is positive
The facts: On Monday and Tuesday we visited the largest Telematics conference in Europe in Munich. This 2-day conference gathered basically all OEMS, Tier1 and their suppliers with the main subjects in presentations and panels being the connected car, telematics services and the roadmap towards automated driving and autonomous vehicles. Presentations were given by VW, Daimler, Toyota, Nokia Here, TomTom and a long list of other players in the ecosystem.
The key take-away was that connected cars are penetrating the market faster than expected, via both embedded systems and off-board systems, and that the penetration will continue to accelerate based on new systems that were presented. Three years ago, we also attended this conference (which only gathered several hundred representatives versus a couple of thousand this time around) and at that time no presentation was about in-car connectivity.
Our analysis: The presentations clearly showed that all OEMS and Tier1s are focused on bringing connectivity into the car, as navigation and traffic (which remain high on the wish list of consumers) and other services (music streaming, social media, parking) require connectivity for an optimal experience. In fact, there wasn't an OEM that did not present some new form of infotainment system with connectivity built-in. The continued focus on navigation and especially live Traffic and related services (such as online parking) are very positive for map makers such as TomTom and Nokia Here.
We will write a separate report on all the key take-aways from the conference presentations and other talks with OEMs and Tier1s plus our take-aways from the Salon de l'Automobile (where we also talked to multiple OEMs and suppliers). But it is clear to us that TomTom is well positioned to take advantage of the current trends. The launch of the new Multinet-R map is only the beginning.
One of the scoops of the conference was that Volkswagen will start using TomTom Traffic for its newly introduced Car-Net, the brand name for all connected services for the VW brand. TomTom was forced to retract its press release relating to this contract win last week. However, it has won the contract but was forced to await the official launch, which will take place next week. Car-Net will be available on the certain 2014 Golf models (so backward compatible) and all electric cars and will first be introduced on the new VW Passat after which all VW models will follow. VW has 2 infotainment systems and TT Traffic will be offered for free in the higher end while the base model will include a free period after which an annual subscription is required.
Conclusion & Action: The Telematics Munich conference showed that connectivity is high on the attention list of OEMs and Tier1s and that the services offered via connectivity rely heavily on maps and traffic playing into the hands of TomTom. The conference has strengthened our view that TomTom has built up a competitive advantage because of the CPP and real-time maps but we will write a more elaborate report to discuss this in detail. The VW scoop (VW will use TT for Traffic) only strengthens this belief. Buy.