The first fully (ish) featured turn by turn navigation for th UK has been released by Navigon.
An iPhone version of their Mobile Navigator is available via the app store, it is a little limited – there is only 5 figure post code recognition and the code seems a little clunky, also there is no speed camera database available. The app is available at a “special offer price” of £37.99 until 30th June at which point it will increase to £59.99, looks like they want to snare early adopters before TomTom get to market.
The reviews suggest it does what it says on the tin reasonably well, one would hope that there will be significant updates in the near future addressing some of the issues.
at £38 it may be worth a look, but maybe on 29th June – just to see what TT have up their sleeves .
Given that TT seems to have been working on turn by turn for ages its something of a coup for Navigon to beat them to the punch, it’s assumed that they are having issues with the cradle being formally given the green light as “official Apple”
June 25th, 2009 at 16:47
Why don’t they have US maps yet? Kinda lame, Iphone is a US product that went over seas, yet they get maps first? Lame
June 26th, 2009 at 12:31
Hi Joel – Navigon is a German company, hence the European maps first, it wouldn’t surprise me if Tomtom were the same. I know AT&T offer USA turn by turn, I was going to review it but as we are mainly UK based, it seemed irrelevant especially once navigon did their bit
June 29th, 2009 at 10:36
This was a good move by Navigon by stealing all the potential TomTom customers with a promotional price and releasing their App first.
The promotional lower price ends 30th June, which indicates they know something we don’t, and that isTomTom is perhaps coming in July.
The major downside I see with the Europe version is it’s “all Countries” or none at all. This means you can’t pick and choose which maps you install, and when an update comes out, it’ll be another 1.3GB +.
It would’ve been better to release the standalone Navigator App, and sell the Maps as extra. At least that way, the updates would be much easier to apply, you could be selective, and wouldn’t need to download another 300M (UK) or 1.3 GB (Europe) monster.