Last August, Huawei announced at the developer conference that it would build its own ecosystem HMS, including Huawei Your own map service system to replace Google Maps that are not available abroad. Recently, news from abroad said that TomTom, a Dutch map maker, has reached an agreement with Huawei to provide Huawei with map data.

Although the two companies have not confirmed the news, after the map engine was changed to “Huawei” in Huawei Sports Health . We can already see that the map provider has become TomTom. In the Map Kit of Huawei HMS service, Demo has also been replaced with TomTom’s map.

▲ Huawei Maps Engine has been selected for sports health

▲ Notice the red arrow, you can see TomTom’s Logo

Why Huawei cooperates with TomTom? This matter also starts from the ecology of foreign maps.

For well-known reasons, Huawei cannot use GMS services overseas. For domestic consumers, Huawei’s HMS services can already completely replace GMS services. But for overseas, Huawei’s HMS is still not a substitute for GMS services, and the biggest shortcoming is the map service.

Why Huawei builds its own HMS map ecosystem

Unlike traditional paper maps, electronic maps not only allow people to see a map of the world on the screen of their mobile phones. And the possibility of people interacting with the map. For users, maps no longer need to look for locations and targets by themselves. Electronic map services can directly solve three major problems for users:

  1. Targeting (where am I)

  2. Navigation (how do I go to the destination)

  3. Spatial associations (what are the associations between the two points)

    By solving these three problems, the electronic map service can help and even guide users to make decisions. To users, a smartphone without a map service is like a person without eyes, and the importance of the map service to the user is visible.

    For manufacturers, the map service is the information export of the network and the real world. Whoever owns the map service can control the real world. Traffic with the cyber world.

    ▲ Providing navigation is only part of the map service is an interface connecting virtual and reality, and the traffic is huge

    Huawei phones previously sold in Europe basically use the map service provided by GMS. After all, Google Maps is built into Android phones Services, and Google Maps does provide comprehensive coverage and ease of use overseas.

    After the GMS map service was unavailable, Huawei fell into the awkward situation where no map service was available in China. This is quite detrimental to the layout of Huawei’s mobile phone business in the European market, because Google Maps has always had a considerable share of the European market. Not many people in Europe are willing to buy a phone without Google Maps out of the factory, even if they can install it themselves.

    ▲ Google Maps has an absolute advantage abroad

    However, Huawei’s services have been in operation in China for many years. The domestic experience of constructing ecology can be transformed to foreign countries. Having said that, the map service is not just a simple APP. The core of the map service is the map database.

    If you are creating a map service in China, as long as you cooperate with a domestic company that has an electronic map surveying and mapping qualification, ready-made map data is available. However, at present, domestic map operators rarely survey and map detailed maps abroad. Of course, Google cannot provide maps for Huawei, so Huawei turned to the Dutch map company “TomTom” to build a detailed map database for HMS services.

    Who is TomTom working with Huawei?

    TomTom is a mapping company headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Founded in 1991, it has been developing mobile phones since 2001. Navigation products. It was once the largest car navigation device manufacturer in Europe, and its car navigation product market share was once the largest in Europe.

    ▲ TomTom was once a car navigator manufacturer

    However, TomTom’s advantages have not been maintained for a long time. Under the wave of smartphones, most car navigators have disappeared from the market. In China, TomTom has gradually transformed its map service provider and provided map data services for Volkswagen, Daimler, Toyota, etc.

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    ▲ After the rise of smartphones, TomTom gradually transformed into a map data provider

    Since 2012, the revised iOS 6 has abandoned Google ’s mapping service has switched to using TomTom ’s map data, and Apple has been a TomTom customer ever since. Even after Apple updated the iOS map in 2018, it used TomTom’s data. It can be seen that TomTom’s overseas map coverage is quite comprehensive.

    What does it mean for Huawei to have TomTom’s map service

    This time Huawei Maps chose TomTom maps to provide data, which at least solved the embarrassment of no maps available overseas. With TomTom’s map service, Huawei can start developing map app directly, and the underlying data can be directly connected to TomTom, and the map service can be provided in the shortest time.

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