The direction that GPS has taken in the past month has surpised many of us and now things have changed again. There is little doubt that a price war is underway and that we could end up with a completely free market one day, which may or may not be a bad thing…
Firstly, MapQuest 4 Mobile for the iPhone by AOL now includes voice guidance for free alongside the introduction of off-route assistance for getting back on track. The system is fairly basic, but can be considered advanced for a free solution.
TomTom has announced lifetime mapping and traffic updates for some North American standalone GPS units. This is obviously an effort to put some spark back into this market because I suspect the iPhone is doing some damage to TomTom’s core business.
TomTom is also releasing new standalone units in the UK at the budget end of the market. The XL Navigation has been released with XL IQ Routes and starts at just £139 for a 4.3″ screened unit. The Start2 comes in at just £119 and includes advanced lane guidance and RDS-TMC traffic compatibility.
I don’t know where this is going to go over the next year, but standalone units could face the biggest competition they ever have from the likes of Android, the iPhone, Nokia Maps and Windows Mobile. That’s a long list to contend with…
