Whilst Tom Tom can make an impressive teaser video (shown below), the resulting iPhone application, which is now available in the App Store [iTunes link]. It costs A$99.99 and is 157MB to download the application. There’s no clarification, but it’s probably safe to assume map updates will come at a cost. If your after the complimenting car mount, your out of luck at the moment, it’s not yet available and will cost extra.
It’s hard to avoid comparisons to dedicated GPS devices, but is that a fair comparison to make ? After all TomTom are using someone else’s hardware and OS. There’s also the other consideration of everyone’s individual GPS status impacting their decision.
Despite the dream of device convergence and doing away with yet another piece of hardware, for those of us who already own a dedicated GPS device that works perfectly well, there’d need to be an incredibly compelling argument (read: feature) to make us want to fork over another $100 for functionality we already have. Unfortunately I don’t see it.
Early reports from those that have bought the application:
– Accuracy is good
– Transitions between calls and navigation is seamless
– Only 1 Australian voice
– Visuals aren’t great
For those considering the investment, I suggest you watch the conversation about the application on Whirlpool.
More @ http://iphone.tomtom.com/
