Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Turn by Turn navigation in the App Store -- from AT&T
The company that iPhone users either love or hate has just surprised everyone with a turn by turn navigation solution now available at the app store. While app is free, to use it you'll have to pay AT&T US$9.99 a month, which is charged to your monthly bill.AT&T Navigator [App Store] is part of a partnership with TeleNav, and it gives voice directions, along with automatic rerouting and real time traffic updates.
The app will find the lowest gas prices along the way, but it doesn't integrate with your address book for entering destinations. You can enter destinations from a PC or Mac, and sync them to your iPhone.
The maps are not on your phone, so if you lose data reception, good bye navigation.
The app requires an iPhone running OS 3.0. AT&T offers this service on some of their other smartphones, so I guess it wasn't a surprise to see it on Apple devices. This will be good for competition, as we await the announced product from TomTom and others who are keen to profit from the demand for navigation services.
If any of our readers try this app, we'd be interested in your thoughts.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
smak said 2:07PM on 6-23-2009
$10 per month? Excuse my french, but AT&T can suck a churro.
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Michael Rose said 2:20PM on 6-23-2009
It's Telenav's pricing, not AT&T -- same on all carriers.
What would you consider fair?
stainboy said 2:43PM on 6-23-2009
yeah, for that price i'd expect a navigation app that would still work even if you lost your phone signal.
Mike said 3:25AM on 6-24-2009
For that you'll pay at least $50 maybe more, plus have to buy map updates at $10 each up to 4 times a year and eat an undisclosed amount of flash storage on your phone (gigs?). This is just a different bussiness model from tomtom. I've used it for years (telenav) and it works great. I normally travel in metro areas with good coverage. And just intermittent signal loss does not affect the turn by turn.
pki730 said 3:49PM on 6-23-2009
I share your love of French expressions. AT&T does suck d-ck! You are out of your mind AT&T if you think I'd pay 10 bucks a month to use my iPhone as a mediocre GPS NAV system when I can by a portable one for under 100 that will work much better.
Eric D. said 4:59PM on 6-23-2009
You can get TomTom Navigator 6 software for various smart phones for $30 on Amazon right now. You can get quarterly updates for $40 a year if you want. That sure beats $120 per year to AT&T.
... and you can get Homer Simpson as a voice. Doh!
Quix said 7:26PM on 6-23-2009
I'm already paying a premium for AT&T service. And now they ask me to bend over and take it some more? Not happening.
As soon as the iPhone is available on another carrier, I'm switching. Talk about contempt for the customer. A-holes.
alex said 2:10PM on 6-23-2009
oh really? $10 a month? thanks at&t, you just again reminded why i wish you never got your greedy hands on the iphone. what a rip.
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mdezz said 2:14PM on 6-23-2009
att you suck....what spacemen
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smak said 2:16PM on 6-23-2009
I'm actually tempted to buy it, just so i can 1-star it to prevent others from buying it.
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Michael Rose said 2:18PM on 6-23-2009
For what it's worth, Telenav's service is the same $10/month on all the other platforms & carriers it supports (Symbian, WinMo & Blackberry). I've used it on the Blackberry with Sprint and it works quite well... until you drive outside of your cell service area, as I did in Alabama one time.
What would you consider a fair service price for turn-by-turn? Keep in mind that you're not paying map licensing or update fees, which on a hardware unit (the $150 TomTom ONE, for example) will be $70/year.
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tevetorbes said 2:25PM on 6-23-2009
If my calculations are correct, $70/year is still cheaper than $10/month.
Am I missing something here? Allow me to echo the sentiment "what a rip" that everyone else is crying.
LD said 2:28PM on 6-23-2009
It's a ridiculous price. I do realize that's what TeleNav charges, and obviously there are people willing to pay for it. There is convenience of having to not carry a GPS if you are a business traveler.
However, I think we'll see other GPS companies (like TomTom) offer much more price competitive options. $10/month means $120/year. A Garmin Nuvi is only slightly more than that. You can buy lifetime maps for $120.
I'll wait to see what comes for GPS apps before I subscribe to TeleNav.
welchb said 2:31PM on 6-23-2009
Allow me to suggest you run your calculations again. *q:=
$70 + $150 = $220.
Which would be way more than $10/mo.
Over the long run, yeah, you'll save money if you don't ever update your dedicated only-does-one-thing dashboard navi.
On the other hand, you could just get a "real" in-dash navi in your car. And don't ever pay anything per month. Or lose signal. And it's actually integrated over your speakers, etc. And doesn't look goofy suction-cupped to your windshield.
But that's a different ballgame for hardware pricing, no doubt. But if you're going to not include hardware costs.. that means that's by far the best option. |grin|
zackisamazing said 3:25PM on 6-23-2009
I'd pay 49.99 for the TomTom app, and 20/year to update the maps.
Still MUCH cheaper than buying a hardware unit.
kf9z said 4:18PM on 6-23-2009
NO the updates are NOT $70 for my Garmin but $40 and I do not update the maps ONCE A YEAR but only every couple of years. For a two year subscription you would get a much better GPS with updates t your map data and real-time traffic reports and re-routing .
What do I think is fair - how does $3-5 a month or a one trip or one use fee?
D
dbreed said 9:48AM on 6-24-2009
@ Michael Rose
You're mistaken about $10 per month being the same on every carrier. Sprint's Everything Data plan includes GPS use in the cost. This is the plan the Pre uses, and it uses the same Telenav program.
Zach said 2:36PM on 6-23-2009
I'm curious as to how profitable this is for TeleNav on other devices. I don't know anybody in their right mind that would pay $10/mo. for GPS.
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Actionable Mango said 4:01PM on 6-23-2009
People who have different needs than you are not "out of their right mind".
My commute is the same every day. The only time I use GPS is two weeks every year or two on a road trip or vacation. For just the month I need, this would amount to $10 every year or two.
Zach said 4:29PM on 6-23-2009
@Mango -- which is why I was wondering how profitable this would be for TeleNav since I'm guessing people like you are probably not in the majority of GPS users. My apologies if my wording offended you.