Nokia’s Navteq buys Reach Unlimited for Trapster app
14 Dec 2010
Navteq, one of the world's top providers of electronic navigable maps and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Finnish mobile handset maker Nokia, yesterday acquired Reach Unlimited Corp for its Trapster application, a popular app that warns drivers of speed traps.
Trapster is an app that warns about locations of law enforcement agencies setting traps for speeding, police checkpoints, as well as road hazards alerts. The warning is relayed on mobile phones such as Nokia Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, Garmin, or TomTom device.
Based in California, Reach Unlimited claims that Trapster has 9.4 million users and has reported 3.5 million traps since it was launched in 2003.
Users submit speed traps, enforcement cameras, and road hazards, which then alert all Trapster users in the area.
According to various media reports, there were five bidders vying to acquire Trapster, but eventually Navteq bagged Trapster for an undisclosed sum.
Navteq has no plans to integrate Trapster into its own platforms but will keep it as a separate application.