TomTom to reduce emphasis on PNDs?

TWICE is reporting that TomTom "will reduce spending in PNDs and increase spending on content." This comes on the heels of their $1.3 billion Q4 loss and reports that they may need to, once again, renegotiate the terms of loans used to buy Tele Atlas.

Meanwhile, GPS Business News is reporting that TomTom has made a major switch in their mobile strategy, dumping the off-board navigation focus and moving more into the location-based services arena.

What does this mean? It's too early to tell for sure, but it appears that the combined company is betting more on the data provider (Tele Atlas) model than the PND (TomTom) model. This would be good news for Garmin, which would benefit from reduced competition, but it's bad news for PND consumers. Looks like all those analysts who slammed Garmin after NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas were sold ought to be eating a little crow about now.