At the beginning of this month, Nokia announced that it would acquire Navteq for $8.1B. Wow. Just two months prior, Tom Tom purchased the rights to Tele Atlas. With the top two mapmakers now under a new umbrella, the industry is showing rapid change.

So what does this all mean? Well, we’re really not sure. But what is evident and has been, is the navigation business’ tremendous growth. With the LBS (location-based services) market ready to explode, companies are looking to leverage the right opportunity.

In its acquisition of Navteq, Nokia not only gains the Navteq maps, but also the traffic information from Traffic.com and travel information from Discover Cities. The opportunities created for Nokia are endless and the consolidation leaves much to the imagination of the type of integration that can occur when blending information, mobile services and GPS.

In the meantime, as the industry sorts out, we congratulate our friends and partners at Navteq for this momentous occasion!