Garmin reverses course and offers on-board maps for iPhone

I've tested many GPS apps and would prefer to support the Waze application which thus far is FREE and works well!

I will be watching any future Navigon updates closely before updating... the application developer has to list what changed. If it lists anything like "changed traffic pricing structure" (likely meaning no more one-time-charge traffic), I ain't updating.

As I make my living in the professional cycling world, I really want to be able to support Garmin since they sponsor a really great, American-based cycling team. Yet the company and their decisions continually leave me scratching my head.

When searching a GPS solution for my iPhones, I really wanted to be able to give them my money. But as I travel constantly (rarely in the country where my data plans are based) downloading maps on the fly was a non-starter.

Now with the news of on-board maps, I was actually thinking of giving them some coin. But the pricing is just ridiculous. $64 for UK and Ireland without Western Europe? WTF? TomTom is the same price including Western Europe, UK and Ireland. Do the geniuses at Garmin not realize that while we at the App Store, we are able to compare features and pricing?

At the Tour de France this year, one of the journalists I was working with was provided a Garmin stand-alone GPS unit as a demo. Whenever we went somewhere together in convoy, he just followed me and my TomTom, as he learned very quickly that his unit was not as efficient in Europe.

I do own the Garmin GPS unit for bicycles. It's so unwieldy and slow that I haven't bothered to use the maps since the first week of owning the $550 unit. Granted this is no longer the latest/greatest model, but it appears that they have improved very little with the recent offering. The maps for this unit are in the $100 range, just to add insult.

Garmin, please get your stuff together. I don't want any one company to gain a huge lead in this market. It's frightening to think what could happen if there was one controller of the map/GPS industry. Of course maybe we need to consolidate our support into one GPS manufacturer to balance against Google eh?

-Keiser

I bought the Magellan GPS app a couple months ago. I'm fairly pleased with it. Some of the routing is a little wonky, then again, I've had that with EVERY GPS device/app I've ever used. But other than that, it works fine. One of the deciding factors for me to go with that was that Magellan also includes at least three years of live traffic with the purchase. I found it to be the best overall deal/feature combination.

I bought the original StreetPilot iPhone app, which needed onboard maps. So they added the maps but not onto the original app, but an entirely new app!!! Do they really expect their early supporters to repurchase the app again??? What a warm way to reward those early adopters who suffered through their first attempt. Hopefully they will come to their senses and turn off the greed, or perhaps, just simply being to think about the implications of their idiotic decision.

Why the entire USA?

I can't imagine a situation where I'd need maps for California and New York in a single trip...

Why not break it up into smaller sections?

Purchased! About time, Garmin!

Garmin sucks. This should have been an update to the original Streetpilot app to right the wrongs with that one. Instead they're sticking it to the customers who paid too much for that app and are now expected to pay full price for this one. Too late. There are other nav-app makers out there who have shown better judgment. Won't get burned again, and hopefully buyers speak up by letting their lack of interest show Garmin how little they appreciate getting shafted. Honestly, TUAW, don't even bother reviewing this one. Let it die on the vine.