Does iOS 6 make navigation apps obsolete?

[thelead]

I've been looking into Navigon and TomTom for the longest but with ios 6 having navigation built in it seems like I may not need to purchase either. Here's the big question though. Will city/state maps be available for download and offline use?

 

[Benz63amg]

No, Tomtom app will still be better because it has maps built into the app, google maps downloads as u go hence taking Data

 

[takeshi74]

Too early to tell. I haven't seen anything that conclusively states whether the Maps app in IOS uses locally stored map data. I'd guess no.

 

[poloponies]

No, Tomtom app will still be better because it has maps built into the app, google maps downloads as u go hence taking Data

Except that iOS6 will replace Google Maps with Apple's own Tom-Tom based mapping. It's unclear whether you'll be able to load maps onto the iPad for navigation purposes. Google is rolling out this feature to Android now and iOS in the near future but if it's not going to be the default map source I'm not sure how it will function under iOS6.

 

[Michael CM1]

Too early to tell. I haven't seen anything that conclusively states whether the Maps app in IOS uses locally stored map data. I'd guess no.

That's quite important. There needs to be an option for this to work with both people who might use it every now and again and people who will use it all the time. Quite often you use a GPS where cell reception is spotty, so I don't want some 50k connection downloading 3D maps.

Apple also didn't reveal if there were other things like speed limits, traffic, etc. like my Magellan app has. If it doesn't have traffic, then it's just an extremely awesome Maps app. If it does, it's a GPS killa.

 

[Gjwilly]

Going by the first beta, the route is fully cached but the maps are not.
You could lose your cell coverage completely and you'd still get the blue line to follow and the voice prompts telling you when and where to turn (complete with spoken street names). Just no pretty background maps.
Rerouting would be a problem if you went off-course but other than that the only concern is data usage.
There are no speed limit warnings and there's no speed displayed on-screen.
No ETA either.
Traffic is supposed to be coming though.

 

[Chundles]

It's made the stand-alone units obsolete but not the apps.

The app-makers have the advantage of locally stored maps (they're not stored on iOS 6 - you need a network signal if you want the pretty pictures) as well as things like better traffic/POI/re-routing etc.

 

[TwoBytes]

When/if apple add cached mapping then this will be a big change to the answer. If they somehow get to store your last 5 routes with maps that would be great. Send the feedback

For now, in other country's that have expensive roaming yes you need a separate app.

 

[fullojellybeans]

I plan on sticking with Waze even with the release of ios 6. I enjoy the social aspects of the app itself. I'll give ios maps a go on a normal route I drive to check for traffic, etc once it drops.

 

[irnchriz]

If you rely on sat nav for your job etc then neither Apple or Googles mapping solutions are for you. You are far better off with a dedicated standalone product or application.

Turn by turn is fine as a standby.

 

[throAU]

No one knows yet, it is all speculation until we've got IOS 6 and can see how good a job apple have done and how complete it is.

 

[jlc1978]

For the occasional user - maybe.

For someone who uses Nav more frequently probably not, mainly because of the data usage issue - with caps it could easily eat into your data limits; plus you're tied to having good data connection as you travel.

What's really interesting is not the Nav app but what it portends in light of Apple's agreements with car manufacturers. This is just a step towards Apple offering their own version of OnStar - on steroids. Imagine a Siri based vehicle communications system that integrates navigations, delivery of entertainment, provides recommendations and answers quires, reads and replies to text via voice, and also is a phone. The vehicle manufacturers will provide the data pipe and Apple the content and apps. CarFi would let you use an iPad as well through the system - who needs a DVD player built in? It's not that far off...

 

[phpmaven]

I've been looking into Navigon and TomTom for the longest but with ios 6 having navigation built in it seems like I may not need to purchase either. Here's the big question though. Will city/state maps be available for download and offline use?

I have Navigon and it's great. White it's great to finally see turn-by-turn come to IOS, I've used it a couple of times and it's quite anemic compared to Navigon. If you only need to use it once in a while, it might do. But if you want something really rock solid and reliable, I would get one of the dedicated apps.