Within the same month that I bought my first PDA that had Bluetooth (BT), I bought my first BT GPS unit and never looked back. With my work, I have to travel a lot, so for years I have used GPS on my phone. It has become an invaluable tool for me personally and professionally. There are times that I will fly into a city I have never been to before, and I have to visit up to 45 retail locations within 2 days, not leaving much time to get lost or turned around. I never go on vacation without having my trusty GPS enabled PDA by my side. But having GPS capabilities won't do you any good if you do not have good software to tell you where you need to go.

The question that has repeatedly come up here at WMExperts for years, is how good is the software or what software should I use? This is a question that we here at WMExperts are continually trying to answer for you. Just a little while ago, Malatesta did a great review for OnCourse Navigator 6 (OCN6). Next month I will go further again with a detailed review of iNav iGuidance ver 4... but today, I will continue to answer part of that question by reviewing the popular **TomTom Navigator 6 for the US and Canada** ($149.95). TomTom has certainly earned a highly regarded reputation in Europe with their software. They also enjoy a great deal of respect in the GPS stand alone market. But how does TomTom Navigator hold up here in the US in the Windows Mobile market?

Read on to find out!

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Let me start by saying that I love TomTom on Windows Mobile - it seems to be the least-resource-intensive among the full featured GPS apps and that matters to me. So I'm inclined to be happy that they're planning on buying up the company that makes the maps they use - Tele Atlas. Supposedly TomTom will be able to gather data from its users to improve the maps. Sure, that's cool.

What's more interesting is that, really, there are two big players in the electronic mapping business these days - Tele Atlas and NavTeq. NavTeq makes the maps for Windows Live Search (swoon) and Notable Calls suspects they'll be snapped up soon as well. That would please me a bit, as it would mean that another mapping client like Google's or WLS's would get more full-featured, but it would also cause me some fear.

Why fear? Well TomTom's purchase is a good case study. They say that TeleAtlas will still be providing maps to other companies, but that decision is pretty much up to the whim of the TomTom management now. Given that TomTom still has the single most annoying GPS software activation process known to mankind, I don't have faith in their commitment to openness. Seems to me what we need is a full-featured, open source, wiki-style map. Hm. Maybe it's time to go contribute to OpenStreetMap, just in case.

Dutch navigation systems company TomTom plans to buy its main map supplier, Tele Atlas, for 1.8 billion euros ($2.5 billion), hoping tight integration of maps and products will give it an edge over competitors.

Read: NavTeq Should Move On Tele Atlas Buyout By TomTom - Seeking Alpha. Thanks to Mike for the tip.