Imminent slowdown?
Posted by Arun Uday on November 22, 2007
I’m in Hong Kong for a few weeks on work and things don’t seem very bright here (I mean on the business front). The Hang Seng Index has had the second largest fall this year and all the pink papers and business channels don’t seem too optimistic either. Nobody’s uttering the “R” word yet, but with oil in kissing distance from $100, the writedowns from subprime crisis showing little signs of ending soon and the dollar on a free fall, all macro economic parameters don’t seem that healthy. Goldman Sachs too has predicted a $2 trillion crunch consequent to the intertia on the part of big banks to lend aggressively following the crises they are going through. As a result, PE buyouts are also witnessing a huge slowdown from a record $400 billion in Q2 CY07 to $130 billion in Q3CY07. It sure looks like a long cold winter ahead.
marutish said
Uday, what is your take on navigation device makers acquiring digital mapping companies ?
Part of the answer to the question is that i personnely, believe that as cameras are now a standard features in mobile phones, in the days to come, navigation devices will become a standard accessory in a mobile phone and the days of stand alone navigation device providers is over the hill. In the days ahead, we will see navigation device makers(hardware) pushing hard to acquire digital mapping companies(software) with a desire to offer high value location based services to customers. Before the Google API’s were available in public, standalone navigation providers controlled the value pool in the industry with their hardware. Today, the value is migrating from Navigation device makers to mobile phone platforms which are offering navigation functionality and location based services.
What is your opinion ?
Marutish@gmail.com
Arun Uday said
I think this latest move from Google should answer your question – http://gigaom.com/2007/11/28/google-my-location/