Co-Pilot Live now in the Apple store

gatorguy

ALK announced availability of the North American version of their well-received iPhone app, Co-Pilot Live. No need to download maps as needed. Full on-board mapping for the US and Canada is included. According to the company, traffic and gas prices soon to be available as well. Of course landscape or portrait mode as expected, tho no TTS, simply announced turn-by-turn. The European version released last month has been very well reviewed, so probably worth a look. At $35 and no ongoing fees, it won't break the bank either. Just visit the iPhone app store or iTunes to check it out.

alokeprasad

I might look at something cheap to have on my iPhone while buying a full featured PND like the 885T for the heavy lifting.

Using the iPhone as a PND has too many unknowns about how that'll affect the core functionality (calls, music) of the iPhone.

And I haven't see a PN software for the iPhone that makes good use of its connectivity to the 'net.

Tim

They will certainly have an advantage on price and it will be interesting to see if that provokes any price changes from Navigon. Currently they are scheduled to go up to $99 on Aug 31. CoPilot almost had to come in with a rock bottom price in North America as they are not as well known/recognized as Navigon, TeleNav, and of course the still elusive TomTom.

gatorguy

Well there's the rub. Had TomTom come in early on at closer to $100, the market might have held closer to that price point, at least for awhile. Instead, delay, delay. In the meantime, since TT got all the early press, the other players felt a need to get attention of their own in TomTom's absence and start a price war. Now if TT tries to come in at anything over $50, it's going to be a hard sell. They have such great ideas at times, but follow-thru is killing them. IMO, their great plans for reinvigorating themselves thru paid services might be a whole lot tougher than thought.

Tim

I'm not sure we have a price war yet. While $40 is an interesting play, Navigon is still scheduled to go up to $99 and TeleNav is still $10/month. If those two hold tight then TomTom can still come in with a relatively high price and still grab a huge piece of the pie.

I think most potential customers are like alokeprasad... waiting it out a bit, wanting to see what TomTom offers, and then they will make up their mind which way they go.

Boyd

I think they are waiting to buy a $500 NuviPhone. :lol:

Tim

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the Garmin board room these days.

gatorguy

I'm not sure we have a price war yet. While $40 is an interesting play, Navigon is still scheduled to go up to $99 and TeleNav is still $10/month. If those two hold tight then TomTom can still come in with a relatively high price and still grab a huge piece of the pie.

I think most potential customers are like alokeprasad... waiting it out a bit, wanting to see what TomTom offers, and then they will make up their mind which way they go.

Navigon had already planned to raise their price this month hadn't they, but decided to extend the intro pricing? My guess is they stay right where they are. Telenav is another story, but even their app is free with some data plans, and they aren't competing with much of anyone on many phones and platforms. They're not a price model for the iPhone and will probably be a small player there. We'll have to wait and see how everything plays out, but I don't see these apps getting more expensive. How many hundreds of thousands of owners have already purchased a nav app? How many have already decided that they aren't purchasing two or three different ones? TomTom has already seriously hurt their current iPhone potential. Given a choice of 4 or more quality apps for well under $50, all of which have received fairly high ratings, plus another dozen related nav apps even less, do you really think there's a huge multi-million user base holding back, just waiting to pay nearly double that for TomTom's software solution, never mind the hardware? I don't. Honestly I'm shocked at how aggressively companies like Navigon and Co-pilot have priced their app. And on top of that, they're good apps. Just can't see a huge pent-up demand for a higher-priced TomTom solution, potentially the most expensive one in the Apple store.

Tim

How many hundreds of thousands of owners have already purchased a nav app? How many have already decided that they aren't purchasing two or three different ones? TomTom has already seriously hurt their current iPhone potential.

I disagree. I think you've got to think like an average consumer and not like you and I think. It is still way too early in the game. TomTom is getting a huge boost from Apple from WWDC. TomTom is a more recognizable name. Many people saw the intro of the TomTom device and probably have never heard of Navigon nor TeleNav and are simply waiting for the TomTom app. Someone emailed me today asking about a release date for the TomTom app and said they didn't even know anyone else was making a navigation app. Sure, some people have jumped on with Navigon or TeleNav, but I don't think TomTom has "seriously hurt their potential". Even most of the more techie people I talk to are still waiting to see everyone's offerings before spending the cash.

gatorguy

Well at least one of us will probably be right. :lol:

BTW, since I don't have an apple product, I don't visit their app store, But I have to assume they have user ratings and or/Apple ratings on the various apps. I know in the BB store I tend to get only those apps that have been highly recommended, even if I recognize a lesser-rated one. I would guess many other users do the same. I don't think name recognition has the same attractiveness in the mobile arena.

alokeprasad

It appears that the $35 price is the regular price and not a limited time sale price for Co-Pilot. If so, I can wait to see what Tom Tom has to offer before taking the plunge.

I still don't know how CP handles phone calls and music in the iPhone.

PS: Their web site is way behind times.. It has no mention of the US products and has very little documentation on the iPhone product.

Tim

BTW, since I don't have an apple product, I don't visit their app store, But I have to assume they have user ratings and or/Apple ratings on the various apps. I know in the BB store I tend to get only those apps that have been highly recommended, even if I recognize a lesser-rated one.

Yeah, but these are Apple product owners. They don't think like most people and will buy things just because they say Apple on them. Of course I'm simplifying things a bit, but I bet Apple people are more brand-aware people.

Garmin could just as easily do the same-- if they released a navigation app they would clean house.

gatorguy

I'm not sure that's true anymore Tim. Garmin has a mobile app, even making one specifically for the Blackberry. But I don't think it's a huge seller. I could very well be wrong, but it just appears to me that consumers have gone thru a monumental change over the past couple of years, and allegiance to old brands isn't there anymore. Just look what happened to the pnd market over the last year. Who woulda thought three years ago that the fastest growing sales would be coming with the no-name devices. Or that TomTom would lose so much market share here. Or even that Garmin would have to resort to heavy price-cutting to hold market.

Tim

Garmin has a mobile app, even making one specifically for the Blackberry. But I don't think it's a huge seller

I agree, it doesn't seem like a huge seller. I think it is largely the wrong platform. While more non-business people are using blackberry devices, it isn't really a device that is attractive to the mass market. Garmin also doesn't seem to promote it-- the last news item about it was nearly 15 months ago.

It isn't so much an issue of brand allegiance, as it is brand recognition. Sure, when you're on the app store and looking at a $0.99 app or even a $9.99 app you could care less about who wrote it. You check out the ratings. But as the price goes up, so does the importance on brand recognition.

Google trends shows that over the past 30 days there has been a 5:1 ratio of searches for "tomtom iphone" versus "navigon iphone".

Who woulda thought three years ago that the fastest growing sales would be coming with the no-name devices.

Well of course they are. :) When you are at the bottom and a no name brand it is easy to increase your sales by 300% in a few months to become the fastest growing brand. When you are Garmin you're happy with an increase in sales of 3%.