NOW: TomTom SatNav

The days of the old familiar roadmap are numbered. Anyone who wants to go from A to B simply taps their destination into a SatNav system to get door-to-door directions. The Netherlands is home to TomTom NV, Europe’s largest manufacturer of satellite navigation systems and a global market leader in satellite navigation applications. In 1991 two young graduates (Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen) embarked on their venture to capture the personal market for handheld computers, until then strictly a business domain. The two thought up dictionaries, games and route planners in minicomputers. The TomTom SatNav was a runaway success. The flotation in 2005 raised about €125 million. Today TomTom is not just a brand name but has become a household name for satellite navigation systems in the Netherlands. 

THEN: Blaeu Atlas

The renowned Atlas Maior (1662) was once the most magnificent atlas available and hugely authoritative because it contained maps of all known places on earth. This lavish work was compiled by Joan Blaeu, Holland’s best-known cartographer from the Golden Age (1596-1673). He was an employee of the Dutch East Indies Company and at the start of the 17th century held a monopoly on the publication of highly detailed maps of regions all over the world. The Atlas Maior, comprising six hundred maps, was one of the most expensive cartographic publications of the 17th century. Each atlas could be custom-made to the buyer’s wishes. The tomes were a feast for the eye. So much so that they were not only purchased for practical use on ships but also as a must-have for the very rich. But those rich buyers were entirely in the dark as to the accuracy of the maps and rumour has it that Blaeu sometimes fobbed them off with dated versions. The Dutch East Indies Company obviously did get the state-of-the-art edition.