Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch
Magellan enters the iPhone nav app sweepstakes
I guess it was inevitable. Magellan has just launched an iPhone app that looks great and will offer road warriors even more choice in a very competitive landscape.The Magellan Roadmate 2010 North America is being offered for a 'limited time' for U.S. 79.99. [iTunes link] The 1.36 GB app includes the usual features plus text-to-speech for pronouncing street names, a car finding feature for when you park, pedestrian mode, lane assist, 3D landmarks, in-app music control, address book integration and an intuitive one touch menu system.
With the Magellan offering, all the big navigation companies have a cell phone product. TomTom is on the iPhone along with Navigon, and Garmin has a cell phone/ nav app hardware solution that hasn't exactly caught on fire with consumers. Then there is the 'will it or won't it appear on the iPhone' Google app.
Also interesting is that Magellan has announced a Premium Car Kit that will allow you to keep your iPhone in your current case, charge your phone, give you a bluetooth speaker phone, allow an iPod touch to work as a GPS, and it is supposed to function with any nav app. No price or specific launch date for the car kit, but it's supposed to be available before the end of this year.
We'll get a review copy of the Magellan app ASAP and give it our usual whirl around town. The more choice the better for iPhone users, and the new features on this Magellan app are most welcome.
[Thanks to David for the tip]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dagamer43 said 5:32PM on 11-16-2009
My guess is with all of these 3rd party GPS makers that have invested in the iPhone platform, Apple is unlikely to want Google Maps Nagivation screwing that up by releasing it for free.
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DA623 said 5:36PM on 11-16-2009
I doubt it, considering there's nothing stopping all of them releasing Android versions of their GPS software. I personally don't see why Apple would prevent it. Because in that case, they would pretty much want to remove the Maps app as well, which I seriously doubt.
dagamer43 said 5:38PM on 11-16-2009
Because Apple gets a 30% cut on every app sold. When the apps are rather cheap, it's not much, but when apps cost $70-100, I'm pretty sure the cost of additional bandwidth isn't much compared to the increased revenues.
Kelmon said 7:27AM on 11-17-2009
By this logic Apple would not permit free applications when paid versions were available. Unless Apple manages to find a "this App duplicates what the iPhone already does" reason (which seems a bit of a stretch) then I can't see a reason to reject the Google Navigation application without it breaking the SDK Terms & Conditions somehow.
If it helps, I would still by an application rather than Google Navigation simply because I don't want to have to rely on "the cloud" for my ability to get directions, plus roaming data costs are always horrendous.
Rembert said 6:07PM on 11-16-2009
That Magellan carkit sounds interesting. The TomTom carkit is a no-go for me as I have a big MPV car with a windscreen that's way too far away. Navigon has announced an active carkit as well. So the race has begun.
For now I'll stick with a cheap iPhone holder attached to a small sidewindow just in front of the door window.
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Kelmon said 7:29AM on 11-17-2009
Indeed, that's another good thing from this announcement - there's going to be real competition in the iPhone GPS Cradle market and TomTom, hopefully, will need to cut the ridiculous price that they are charging for their solution. I haven't selected a solution yet so my money is still up for grabs.
williamlane said 8:02PM on 11-16-2009
Why would you release an app, put it up on your own company site with a 'View Demo' link that displays.........
nothing
'coming soon'
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jb510 said 10:46PM on 11-16-2009
Personally I long for a Garmin iPhone App. I sOOooo miss my Garmin stand alone units (all three).
I use Navigon ATM, and it's OK but has several fatal flaws... #1 there is no way from the main screen to temporarily mute voice prompts... I don't need to hear every 20 seconds driving through LA on the freeway to keep to the left because there is some kind of a merge/interchange going on. #2 Podcasts don't show up when accessing the iPod from the App. #3 the POIs are POS... seriously 90% of the businesses I search for are not found and I end up having to use the map application to find it and then copy the address into Navigon....
If/When you review the Magellan app I hope you consider those three points above :)
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Maggie said 3:35PM on 11-17-2009
this app is actually pretty good. I played with it and it was very friendly user. The car kit is better than TomTom cuz it WORKS WITH ANY GPS app, not only their's!
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Rick Johnson said 5:45PM on 11-18-2009
Geolife and Posimotion also have a solution out for the iPod touch right now called Navmii. It's only in the UK, but I've heard that there's a US version coming soon. They even have a piece of hardware called the G-Fi that sends the GPS data over wifi.
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