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TomTom and Navigon Bringing Turn-by-Turn GPS Car Navigation to iPhone

My feeling on this

I agree it's nice to have all my devices in one iphone, but as some have pointed out you can pick up a pretty nice GPS unit from Navigon, Garmin, Tom Tom for around $75, I own a Navigon 2100 and it's a pretty incredible little unit, it has text to speech and Navigon units show you what the green expressway signs look like and show you what lane you should be in, so if they are going to charge more than what a full GPS unit would cost, I don't see alot of people buying he app.

And if they try the method that these idiots who make Gokivo, then it will surely fail, (Gokivo came out with a .99 cent app on the 17th and nowhere on he description did it tell you that you would have to pay for the service, they first had prices of .99 cents for a minute or $2.99 for 10 minutes, or $9.99 for a month, now after getting slammed in the reviews, they only have the $9.99 per month fee, but whose going to pay $9.99 per month, at that rate in 6 months you've paid for a GPS unit.
 
nrechtman said:
I agree it's nice to have all my devices in one iphone, but as some have pointed out you can pick up a pretty nice GPS unit from Navigon, Garmin, Tom Tom for around $75,
Click to expand...

Maybe, but none of these are as small as the iPhone are they?

I have both iPhone and Tom Tom (which is a very good satnav) but I still have to carry around an extra bulky item.

I agree the price has to be good, but I feel that they will price with all this in mind and for the fact that the iPhone is considered a 'Premium Phone', as quoted by my carrier.
 
AppleMark said:
Maybe, but none of these are as small as the iPhone are they?

I have both iPhone and Tom Tom (which is a very good satnav) but I still have to carry around an extra bulky item.

I agree the price has to be good, but I feel that they will price with all this in mind and for the fact that the iPhone is considered a 'Premium Phone', as quoted by my carrier.
Click to expand...

Why would you carry around a TomTom? Put it in your center console when you are out of the car if you really worry about someone stealing it. The refurb 130 can be bought on Amazon for $49 after $20 rebate and you get one free update to the maps to make sure it is up to date. If you want the road name to be spoken get the 130S refurb for $69 after $20 rebate. These things are not bulky at all. The stand is great and the device itself is only 3.5" and is quite good (especially for the money).

As for the iPhone, it is great, but the added subscription cost of using it for GPS, worrying about the logistics of phone calls, and worrying about direct sunlight or heat damaging the phone if it is mounted on the dashboard I would say it isn't worth it.
 
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brop52 said:
Why would you carry around a TomTom? Put it in your center console when you are out of the car if you really worry about someone stealing it.
Click to expand...
Erm, because that and the glovebox would be the first place a thief would look?
 
Fizzoid said:
Erm, because that and the glovebox would be the first place a thief would look?
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If someone breaks into your car you have more issues than losing a $49-$69 GPS. If you use the iPhone as your GPS you will have the same problem as they will break in to get in and look for a GPS because they see the mount. Only way you can prevent this is to have a good security system and make your car less valuable to a thief than the one next to yours.
 
brop52 said:
If someone breaks into your car you have more issues than losing a $49-$69 GPS. If you use the iPhone as your GPS you will have the same problem as they will break in to get in and look for a GPS because they see the mount. Only way you can prevent this is to have a good security system and make your car less valuable to a thief than the one next to yours.
Click to expand...
Security systems don't stop people breaking into cars, they can be in and out in seconds. Best way to prevent it is not to leave the mount on display, but even then it may not stop speculative thieves breaking in. However, I'd rather have to pay for a new window than a new window and a £200 Sat Nav
 
Fizzoid said:
Security systems don't stop people breaking into cars, they can be in and out in seconds. Best way to prevent it is not to leave the mount on display, but even then it may not stop speculative thieves breaking in. However, I'd rather have to pay for a new window than a new window and a £200 Sat Nav
Click to expand...

Agreed.

My friend had his navi stolen out of his glovebox.

At least if someone does a smash and grab they won't have an easy target.
 
brop52 said:
If someone breaks into your car you have more issues than losing a $49-$69 GPS. If you use the iPhone as your GPS you will have the same problem as they will break in to get in and look for a GPS because they see the mount. Only way you can prevent this is to have a good security system and make your car less valuable to a thief than the one next to yours.
Click to expand...

Exactly, keep the items in your car low profile and the thieves will look for another car.
 
Drag'nGT said:
Exactly, keep the items in your car low profile and the thieves will look for another car.
Click to expand...
Or just don't leave them in your car! Why bother taking the risk?
That's why, despite owning a TomTom, I'm planning on buying this app, then I'm only having to carry 1 device around with me after leaving the car somewhere
 
AT&T makes Navigator (re-branded TeleNav) available for the iPhone ($9.99 per month)

Hi all,

As I suspected in prior posts, AT&T has made its Navigator application available for the iPhone with a $9.99 per month subscription fee, which is the same as it does now for other phones.

It is available via the iTunes store.

More information here:

http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/06/23/att.navigator.iphone.app/

Bear in mind that Navigator is a re-branded version of TeleNav's application, so I would expect TeleNav to announce something RSN, probably with the same pricing model.

HTH,

Marc
 
I think TomTom would easily dominate the turn by turn market if they put a gps chip in the car kit. There are millions and millions of iphone 2G and ipod touch owners out there that would take advantage of this and TomTom would be foolish not to tap into that part of the market.
 
If it has a GPS speedo function I will be hard wiring it into my car. I change rims/ diff ratios too often to trust anything else, I have a gps speedo on the iPhone now, but no holder, and an extra antenna would help it.

I returned a Garmin I bought as it was just crap compared to a friends TomTom, so atleast in Australia, TomTom are half decent.
 
no chip

vvebsta said:
I think TomTom would easily dominate the turn by turn market if they put a gps chip in the car kit. There are millions and millions of iphone 2G and ipod touch owners out there that would take advantage of this and TomTom would be foolish not to tap into that part of the market.
Click to expand...

I don't think they will put a chip in it, that is in the phone. but, I thin the car kit, cradle, charger HW device they are going to offer with it, WILL have an external antenna interface - assuming that apple has an API for that.
 
mschwartz said:
Hi all,

As I suspected in prior posts, AT&T has made its Navigator application available for the iPhone with a $9.99 per month subscription fee, which is the same as it does now for other phones.

It is available via the iTunes store.

More information here:

http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/06/23/att.navigator.iphone.app/

Bear in mind that Navigator is a re-branded version of TeleNav's application, so I would expect TeleNav to announce something RSN, probably with the same pricing model.

HTH,

Marc
Click to expand...

The downside of this is it is now obvious that Tom Tom will go the "service" route with their app.
For $10 per month, they better include traffic management.
 
:confused:

Are we sure this will work on '2008' iPhone 3G's with 3.0 os - not just the newly released iPhone 3 GS's etc..?

I can understand how the extra features in the new iPhone 3's would really bring some turn by turn advantages, but I can't just write off the remaining year's contract on my present iPhone 3G
 
AforAndromeda said:
:confused:

Are we sure this will work on '2008' iPhone 3G's with 3.0 os - not just the newly released iPhone 3 GS's etc..?

I can understand how the extra features in the new iPhone 3's would really bring some turn by turn advantages, but I can't just write off the remaining year's contract on my present iPhone 3G
Click to expand...

Agrred. With the ridiculous prices having to be paid to upgrade to the new 3g s, tomtom would lose a lot of customers if this didn't work on the iphone 3g.
 
Zimmy68 said:
The downside of this is it is now obvious that Tom Tom will go the "service" route with their app.
For $10 per month, they better include traffic management.
Click to expand...

It may not be obvious, although it gives more credibility to the possibility of this model with other vendors.

Keep in mind that TomTom is offering the hardware add-ons, which AT&T and TeleNav (so far) do not offer. So that likely means that at least the hardware would be purchased. They may offer a software only option, which may make sense to make available for a subscription basis. Of course, there could be a hybrid option of buying the hardware and then make the software subscription. Too many possibilities until they actually formally announce something.

The question remains relative to software/map updates. With a subscription model, this would be included, as it is now with AT&T and TeleNav. With a purchase model, will they make the updates free or will they charge for them. If the latter, that has to be considered in the ongoing costs of their product.

If they were to offer a subscription based model, they would have to offer the traffic service to be competitive with similar options. Navigator/TeleNav have it it built-in and of course even with the standalone units, some have lifetime traffic built-in with the FM receivers in the charging cable as an alternative to the MSN based subscription traffic service option.

As others have noted, including in the thread now on this forum regarding the AT&T announcement, while the monthly service adds up over time, it has to be considered relative to the total cost over time of the stand-alone units. In the latter case, there is the initial purchase price, the cost of software/map updates and unless lifetime traffic was included, the monthly traffic subscription fee.

People clearly have strong feelings on this subject as noted here and elsewhere. It will all depend upon the feature set and costs of each option and what folks prefer. There are pros and cons to each option, whether for the iPhone or standalone units.

The one thing that I know for sure is that I want traffic and I have been MS free for a number of years. No going back on that... :)
 
not sure

Fizzoid said:
It's already been reported it has, as well as a mic, speaker and FM transmitter (so I believe those hoping for a $30 price tag are going to be severley dissapointed)
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/blog/tag/iphone-tomtom/
Click to expand...

I am not totally sure that "includes a GPS receiver to boost the signal received by the iphone GPS" means an actual GPS chip, or an antenna.

If it is GPS receiver AND antenna, then it would work with the touch no proble.

obviously, we'll see.
 
hardware

I think TT will go full blown HW/SW local maps data, etc.
and THEN they will offer some additional model for monthly traffic data and additional in application offerings.
 
tivoboy said:
I am not totally sure that "includes a GPS receiver to boost the signal received by the iphone GPS" means an actual GPS chip, or an antenna.
Click to expand...

It has been reported to be a GPS receiver. And frankly, I don't see any other possibility. There doesn't appear to be any way to couple an external antenna into the iPhone or Touch. The connector is the 30-pin A/V/data connector, which is not an RF connector and thus has no antenna connection AFAIK.

Plus, this makes for an intriguing product for non-iPhone users if it supports the Touch. If you are in the market for a GPS unit, you would now have the option of one that has full iPod capability. I could see some people opting for a TomTom cradle plus Touch over a dedicated nav GPS.
 
Well that sounds great!

Great!

Makes it even better, but then of course it will be more $$ too.

I still think this is the one I am waiting for.
 
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