Rim To Acquire Dash Navigation, Build The Largest GPS Sensor Network Worldwide?

The word on the street is that RIM/Blackberry is set to acquire Dash Navigation (link, subscription required), the company that wanted to build connected GPS. Dash’s idea was quite good: having an always connected GPS lets you do all kinds of cool things like turn users into (anonymous) traffic sensors or setup a route on your PC before sending it to your phone.

Unfortunately, Dash never got the hardware right and the company did a massive layoff in November of last year. A RIM acquisition could build on the software work that Dash had done. Many Blackberry phones already have a GPS and all it takes is a Dash client application to make things work. If this was to move forward, Blackberry could turn its users into the largest GPS network of sensors not only in the US, but worldwide. From there, Blackberry users would have better road traffic information, which would bring in more users, creating a virtuous circle.