TomTom, the Dutch company for navigation and digital maps, announced on Friday that it has entered into a deal with the Chinese company Huawei to use its maps and services in smart phone applications. Thus, the company has found an alternative to Google Maps for its phones.
The move comes after Huawei had to develop its operating system and services for smartphones, after the administration of US President Donald Trump actually blacklisted it last year due to national security concerns. This prevented Huawei from using the official Android operating system from Google, along with widely used applications such as Google Maps in new phones.
The deal with TomTom means that Huawei can now use company maps, traffic information and navigation programs for the Dutch company to develop applications for smartphones.
A spokesman for the Dutch company, Remco Mirstra, said: “The deal was completed some time ago, but the company has not announced it.” Mirstra did not reveal any details regarding the value of the deal.
It is noteworthy that the company TomTom – which is moving away from selling devices to focus on providing software services – had sold its IT department to the Japanese company (Bridgestone) to focus on its work related to digital maps.
