TomTom Gears Up For Second Half

By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 8/17/2006

Concord, Mass. — TomTom is replacing its popular GO 300 leader model portable GPS with a newly redesigned TomTom One to be in stores at the end of this month.

Improvements in the new model, also at a suggested $499, include lighter weight and a flat screen. It includes maps of the United States and Canada on a 1GB SD card, touch-screen operation, and compatibility with Bluetooth, real-time traffic and other services.

The shipments will follow a resolution of the product shortages that TomTom experienced earlier in the summer because of constrained parts supplies. “We had a parts shortage over the summer, which has been solved,” said president Jocelyn Vigreux. “During those months, we maintained our market share. We’ll be running on all eight cylinders for the second half of the year.”

TomTom claims it is the second largest GPS supplier in the United States with more than 20 percent of the market (second to Garmin with about 50 percent), based on factory-level sales to U.S. retailers.