True, it's not the first app offering turn-by-turn driving instructions for the iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS -- but it is from TomTom, an industry heavy-weight that is finally delivering on years of rumor and speculation. After starting with New Zealand a few hours ago, the iTunes App Store is now populated with region specific TomTom apps for NZ ($95), Australia ($80), US and Canada ($100), and Western Europe ($140). If that sounds expensive... it is; dedicated TomTom navigators start at $120. In other words, this isn't one of those knee-jerk 99 cent App Store purchases. Naturally, that price does not include the announced TomTom iPhone car kit (rumored to cost £113.85 (about $194) with bundled mapping software) that mounts and charges your iPhone 3G or 3GS while enhancing its GPS performance, speaker, and microphone.
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My take; this is going to impact retail sales of GPS devices... and probably significantly. I think this will finally teach guys like Garmin a lesson in "less is more", as they continue to roll out product lines featuring far too many models with very little differentiation between the available SKUs. If you've noticed, Garmin and Humminbird are the only two manufacturers still pumping out seemingly hundreds of SKUs to serve the market, where their competition is much more streamlined in their offerings. I just don't understand a company, who's product is SOFTWARE ... making hundreds of hardware devices to run it. The obvious example is, where are "Windows branded PCs?" One could argue that Xbox is one, but that's a different topic for another blog. Hopefully, Garmin and Mio and Magellan will all see this, and either make their move or finish up their own iPhone apps in the near future.
Take care guys and gals...
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