Trapster Will Die At The End Of The Year

Say goodnight to the app that helped you find those pesky red-light cameras

In 2007,

Trapster began with a roaring success and was even acquired by the mapping division of Nokia in 2010. At that time, is was one of only a few apps which provided users with minute details about cop activity and traffic by using crowd-sourced information.

But the handy app for many people is going to die a quiet death by the end of 2014 due to discontinuation of service.

The useful app alerted users about everything from red light cameras and cops to road hazards and speed traps. When any of these issues were spotted, drivers were alerted immediately so that they could change course or slow down. Users will not be alerted any more as the service will shut down in only a few days.

An official email from the team at Trapster communicated the message to users:

“After evaluating our ongoing investments, we have decided to discontinue the Trapster service by the end of the year.

It is hard to imagine saying goodbye after 7 years but we want to thank you for using Trapster and your loyalty to the Trapster community.

Thank You, Team Trapster.”

Although the exact cause for the discontinuation of service is not known at the moment, it is conjectured that the pullback has got something to do with a privacy scandal earlier this year in which users were able to track the movements of other drivers very easily. The service was acquired in 2010 by Nokia but as rival apps like Waze began to see more usage, the Trapster app failed to be backed up by any more significant updates. Waze, on the other hand, has managed to build up a huge user base and has also caught the eye of none other than Google.

After the acquisition of Nokia, the app saw its user base falling steadily and its usefulness has largely been negated.

It is unknown whether the technology of the service will be integrated into the Here navigation solution from Nokia. The app once boasted of as many users as 20 million and the shutdown is most likely to cause inconvenience to many people.

Source: Data and information presented on this blog have been sourced from http://jalopnik.com/trapster-will-die-at-the-end-of-the-year-1665444297