RIM quietly acquires Dash Navigation?

By on Jun 4, 2009 at 11:18 AM
General June 4, 2009

According to an article published yesterday by GPS Business News, RIM may have quietly acquired struggling nav/LBS firm Dash Navigation. The site’s co-founder and Editor allegedly spoke to a trusted source who claims that the acquisition is a done deal. Dash, as we’re sure you’ll remember, was the maker of an awesome little connected nav unit that, well, no one bought. In November of last year, Dash laid off several staffers and announced it would cease production of its hardware solution, the Dash Express. While Dash has long since stopped making hardware navigation units like the one we had a little fun with above, the company would continue to license its software to hardware and mobile handset manufacturers moving forward. Despite its lack of user adoption, Dash indeed built a solid platform that is literally world’s beyond RIM’s current mapping/LBS solutions on BlackBerry devices. If RIM is looking to improve its offerings, snatching up Dash would definitely be a very inexpensive way to go. Neither RIM nor Dash have commented on acquisition rumors.

UPDATE: RIM confirmed that it has acquired Dash.

Thanks, Rich!

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  • http://www.techstbooks.com Colin

    Lots of room out there for integration of in car gps with phones (specifically appointments and their locations). For the right price this could be a good move.

  • Nerdherder

    Hmmmmmm, the possibilities. BB certainly needs an upgrade to BB Maps, maybe this will be it?

  • StevenGlansburg

    cue the Tour Trolls….

  • sean

    HA…I have a Dash. Its actually really cool but I don’t use it cause I moved back to my home city. Only Gps with yahoo search…you can find anything while driving around. Anybody wanna buy it?? I love it but I don’t need it anymore.

  • veks

    Bis or bes on a dash system… I look forward to seeing what comes out of this.

  • Perspective

    The key line here is “lack of user adoption.” After all, there is a reason Dash discontinued its hardware manufacturing.

  • Fahad

    smart move on RIM’s part, lets see how all this plays out

  • Austin850

    This could be really nice. Can’t wait to see what happens.

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • http://Davidthande.blogspot.com David Thande

    If this is true. I’m excited! Storm 3!!

  • C Jizzle

    The best-selling GPS Navigation apps today on BlackBerry are the White-labeled carrier versions (VZ Nav powered by NIM), AT&T Nav and Sprint Nav (powered by TeleNav), as well as the TeleNav, Garmin-branded GPS Nav apps. This move seems to be RIM’s play to increase it’s revenue by selling its own GPS Navigation, probably thru their new apps store. Smart move!

  • http://nickbostic.com Nick Bostic

    I really hope something good comes out of this. I love my Bold, but AT&T Navigator isn’t very good and Google Maps doesn’t help with turn-by-turn, so I could definitely see myself using this. Maybe from the App World?

  • mike

    I still have my beta test unit, they never asked for it back or sent anything else other than the brand new unit in a retail box with no return label. System worked great BTW esp. the traffic updates and warnings.

  • jazzyl

    Nice can’t wait to see what RIM wants to do with all that hardware!!! Hey @ boygenius nice photoshop “RIMDASHBERRY” I like it!!!!!!!!!!

    Sent via BlackBerry.

  • CTSLICK

    The concept behind the Dash was solid and I absolutely loved the sending addresses to my Dash over the internet. The online services they were integrating we almost enough to make we want to buy the wireless service for it. But the hardware was a bit bulky for my taste, They might have used a little help there. So maybe I’ll hold onto it instead of selling it, though I doubt RIM’s interest will have much to do with hardware.

  • grrr

    @stevieG tuh tuh tuh tuh TOUR.

  • kenny817

    Sprint Tour to be released mid-July!

  • http://mobilemogulreport.blogspot.com/ Justin

    AT&T would block it anyway…

  • bonesb

    The acquisition of Dash makes for a pretty cool new application one of these days. RIM needs to license Navteq data here in the US. Teleatlas data in the US blows chunks.

  • Beeve

    Following in the footsteps of other handset manufacturers(see Nokia’s acquisition of NAV this past year). This is just to keep pace. BB are a bit behind in NAV.

  • phillip82

    Probably it helps RIM to compete more head-to-head with Nokia in Europe. I can’t imagine RIM wants to compete on navigation with AT&T and Verizon who are content with their own navigators. I noticed that Nokia Maps is missing from Nokia E71 on AT&T network – instead, AT&T Navigator is preloaded.

  • travis

    Watch out! Nokia’s got Navteq!

  • kulkulkan

    I think this was purely financial transaction to buy tax-losses of Dash for cheap (Dash had raised $70M). The technology/IP is a throw-in/bonus.

    If they wanted make a strategic acquisition for GPS, there are much better companies still available. This ain’t it.

  • shilpa

    Do u still have it? If so,how much are you selling it for?

    Shilpa

  • http://bloglines.com/blog/phoebusboy phoebusboy

    Dash made a great product, highly customizable and functional- too bad no GPS company can figure out how to integrate a radar detector into these dashboard units. I have no interest in plugging in three devices into the cigarette lighter. Maybe RIM will look at what drivers want from their navigation units now.

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