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TomTom

TomTom – Leaders In The Navigation As Well As The Consumer Electronics Industry.

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Online map and navigation systems are the one revolutionary product that is being used by almost every third person on earth. They use them to locate a restaurant, to be safe when in a different place by sharing their location, or just to reach a certain destination. Though the paper maps have been there for a while, the technology-backed online maps are the most useful in today’s time. The navigation technology has not only helped big organizations like the vehicle manufacturers, Apple or Google (for their navigation software for earnings) but has empowered the common people, too. Today, the common people can independently roam around using those maps in a place, where they have never been before. Apart from the famous Google Maps, these navigation technologies are available with Apple, Bing, Here, Jawg and MapBox, etc. Most of the automobile companies are also including navigation systems into their vehicles, one big example includes the electric car manufacturer Tesla. Having navigation at one’s fingertips is the work of companies like TomTom. TomTom is a multinational Dutch company that is one of the leaders in the navigation as well as the consumer electronics industry. Apple’s maps app is also empowered by TomTom’s navigation data.

About the Company

TomTom is a thirty years old company, founded in 1991 and has its headquarters based in Amsterdam. The company started as a software developer (meter reading and bar-code reading) for corporate handheld devices (palmtop, mobile phones). But by end of the 90s, it started to focus on satellite navigation software development. Today, the company is counted among the leading navigation software developers. The company is a publically traded company and trades on Amsterdam Stock Exchange. In the past thirty years, the company has grown to have over 4500 employees. As per the 2019 records, TomTom made annual revenues worth 701 million, and its estimated operating income was € 56 million.

TomTom
Image source: webassets.tomtom.com

The Back Story

Corinne Vigreux, Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen founder TomTom as Palmtop Software in 1991 in Amsterdam. As the name suggests, the company started to develop software for corporate handheld devices, such as the meter reading and bar-code reading software. The company mainly focused on developing the Psion devices software. In fact, TomTom had partnered with Psion and developed EPOC32. Along with that, the company also released its first map software a route planning application in 1996 that worked on mobile devices. By the end of the 90s, TomTom had developed mapping software like EnRoute, Citymaps, and Routeplanner, etc.

In 2001, with a name change from Palmtop Software to TomTom, the company also released its first car satellite navigation software named TomTom Navigator. Later, in 2004, the company added a new feature, a subscription-based traffic update service to TomTom Navigator. In the same year, the company also released TomTom Go, a personal navigation device for common people.

TomTom went public on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 2005 and valued at approximately €50 million. The next year, the company introduced water-proof navigation devices for motorcycle users and also, added the text-to-speech feature for road names to its existing navigation software. In 2007, TomTom partnered with Vodafone to develop a real-time traffic data service for its consumers. The very feature was also released for the Netherlands, and in further years it reached the other countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Switzerland. TomTom released its software for iPhone in 2009, and for Android, the software came in 2015.

2013, the company released a GPS sports watch named TomTomRunner, the next year, it came with the Runner Cardio GPS, and in 2015, it brought a new action camera named Bandit. By 2018, TomTom had bagged a contract from Apple to be its main GPS data supplier for Apple’s map app. TomTom reported in 2019 that it had earned over 800 million users for its various software and devices. Apart from Apple using TomTom maps data, the company’s main clients from the auto industry include Volvo, Nissan, Fiat Chrysler, Porche, Lamborghini, Bentley, etc.
In the past thirty years, TomTom has also made some strategic acquisitions that have been an additional benefit for its growth. Companies acquired by TomTom include Datafactory AG (2005), Applied Generics (2006), Tele Atlas (2008), etc.

The CEO at TomTom

Harold Goddijn is one of the founders and the CEO of TomTom. He is a native of the Netherlands and was born on 23 April 1960 in Oegstgeest, Netherlands. Goddijn is an Economics graduate from the University of Amsterdam and started his career at a venture capital firm. Later in 1989, he founded Psion Netherlands BV, becoming the managing director of Psion Computers. Goddijn left the company to full-time join Palmtop Software in 1999. With the name change of Palmtop to TomTom, Goddijn became the CEO of the company in 2001.

slack

Slack Awaits Its Biggest Makeover For Improving User Interface

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Slack Technologies released its messaging application in 2013. The user interface had some flaws that the company is trying to fix. Every application comes up with the latest and modified version after a fixed period. But, Slack has declared that this redesigning of the application is going to be the biggest in its history.

Prior problems faced by the users

Apart from the basic structural design, every user wants to customize and make sure they are comfortable using any application. An application might have the power to do multiple tasks at a time. But, the problem arises when your users don’t know how to do it at all.

Slack is a very powerful platform that provides a tool for instant messaging. It is available in eight different languages. Currently, it has 12 million active daily users. But, every time the customers provide feedback, the common question “how to use the features” has come up. Jaime DeLanghe, Director of Product Management, Slack said that they were too busy delivering customer value. But, it is high time to take a pause and provide some space to the user interface.

We have often run by the common proverb, “Too many cooks spoil the broth”. Here is the thing; Slack is having the innumerable number of features. But, what is the use of it when the customers cannot use it properly? Everything needs to be in the proper place, customizable, a lot simpler, and well fitted on the screen.

The trendy sidebar

The news of the redesigning has created a “face-palm” situation for the users. Many of them are in tension if it gets more complex. But, Ethan Eismann, Vice President of Design, Slack stated that the redesigning will adapt some old school ideas as well. They are working on making it as simpler as possible.

Slack users have previously faced the problem regarding customizing which led to the introduction of a sidebar. Out of all changes that are going to take place, the sidebar is the real hype. One person must be busy working on a project and discussing it at the same time. So, the new sidebar will allow the user to segregate all you need to be in one section. And, the users can then simply drag and drop it in the sidebar. So, it just stopped getting messy and confusing in the first place.

Moreover, this sidebar also has a new compose button which will allow the users to start a conversation into any Slack Channel. The users can either DM or any other way as it will work more like a universal texting button. Another section called People and Mentions & Reactions has been added to the sidebar. This allows the user to find relatable channels and pings, and also suitable people the user wants to DM. So, the redesigning will make Slack more time-efficient along with making it comfortable to use.

But, this whole thing of organizing the channels and conversations under one roof is available for the paid-users only.

What are the other modifications?

It is to be noted that a lot of changes are going to take place in the application, especially the frontend development. Apart from the sidebar, Slack is introducing a top navigation bar. This has been introduced so that the users can search and switch between pages. This feature also helps the users to view their browsing history. The activities that the user might carry out in the navigation bar will support mouse and keyboard shortcuts.

The shortcut button is modified which can be used now access conversation tools. Previously, this was to be done by text commands. The application will also have a new compose button and other small changes.

Redesigning is important than adding new features

When a modified version of an application is released it comes with new features. But, this time Slack has decided to arrange its existing features in a better and clearer way. Instead of adding some new features and making it messier, it is important to think about the user interface. So, Slack has decided to make changes in the mobile application and undoubtedly in UI.

Slack is also thinking about the new users coming from a habit of using a different application or only drafting emails. The company has already started implementing the changes to make Slack spacious and well-arranged.