Free satnav? hmmmm

Balb0wa · 29 Oct 2009 at 16:48

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8331824.stm

Shares in sat-nav device companies have fallen substantially after Google unveiled its free live sat-nav for mobiles on Wednesday.

US firm Garmin fell 18% after details of Google Maps Navigation were revealed. Dutch firm TomTom dropped 13% on when markets opened on Thursday.

The Google application promises free real-time, turn-by-turn directions for people to follow on their phones.

The Motorola Droid will be the first mobile phone equipped with the system.

Google Maps Navigation, revealed on Wednesday, combines services including a search engine to find addresses, Google Street View for photos of locations, and live traffic data.

Other mobile sat-nav applications, such as TomTom's, can cost up to £60 to add.

TomTom's share decline wipes out all of its gains since August. Separately the company warned of lower prices in the coming months.

thecremeegg · 29 Oct 2009 at 16:51

Better be coming to Blackberry

Hequn · 29 Oct 2009 at 16:53

If they do it for symbian I'll definitely grab it

SoundsGood · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:03

Hasn't this been out for awhile?

Janesy B · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:06

SoundsGood said:
Hasn't this been out for awhile?

No, that's maps.

It's a bit of a kneejerk reaction to be honest.

Tomsk · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:18

It's not completely free though....

Google Maps Navigation uses your phone's internet connection

Hequn · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:19

Tomsk said:
It's not completely free though....

Well, if you have unlimited internet it is

britboy4321 · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:20

I love competition in a market place. It can only help us consumers (unless Garmin and Tomtom go out of business as a result -- then google say 'er .. it's £400 now'!!)

PhillyDee · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:31

Only in th US. No plans for over here yet (apparently")

Siliconslave · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:37

will only be any good if either 3g coverage improves greatly, along with network speeds, or they allow pre-cashing of routes.

Regardless there is some stuff in there that the other sat nav makers have really dropped the ball on - decent POIs, location searching, voice recognition, on route search etc etc

Medge · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:44

Looks promising but I just found this, which states the first release will be for Android based phones only

Hopefully we'll see it on other non-Android phones later on

GeX · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:45

Tomsk said:
It's not completely free though....

if you have a modern smart phone that'd run the app, then you are likely to have an unlimited data allowance - my phone (HTC Hero) would be next to useless without its data connection.

There is already a very good piece of nav software for Android though, called Co Pilot - and it only costs £20-£30

Medge said:
Looks promising but I just found this, which states the first release will be for Android based phones only

was pretty obvious that'd be the case tho eh!

Stellios · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:46

Medge said:
Looks promising but I just found this, which states the first release will be for Android based phones only

I know, I just got an HTC Hero last week so im jumping for joy

Spuderoony · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:47

Siliconslave said:
or they allow pre-cashing of routes.

How on earth would that be of any use? Are you suggesting you'll type in what speed you'll travel at and it will 'guess' when to tell you to turn?!

m4cc45 · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:49

Prefer Tom Tom to be honest - it's a very good application. I imagine GPS equipped phones could use the GPS rather than the net connection?

Still I have a Tom Tom which is a one of investment (if you dont want to pay for the subscriptions, etc.) and I'll be sticking with that. Total knee jerk reaction which given the volatile market conditions doesn't suprise me. I bet iTunes shares will be dropping next after the Google Music Store thing.

M.

PhillyDee · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:49

Stellios said:
I know, I just got an HTC Hero last week so im jumping for joy

Escept its US only . . . .

Stellios · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:51

PhillyDee said:
Escept its US only . . . .

For now it is

Janesy B · 29 Oct 2009 at 17:58

m4cc45 said:
Prefer Tom Tom to be honest - it's a very good application. I imagine GPS equipped phones could use the GPS rather than the net connection?

Still I have a Tom Tom which is a one of investment (if you dont want to pay for the subscriptions, etc.) and I'll be sticking with that. Total knee jerk reaction which given the volatile market conditions doesn't suprise me. I bet iTunes shares will be dropping next after the Google Music Store thing.

M.

Er you can't pull down the maps from GPS. Any tomtom device has the maps stored on the device. It doesn't pull them out of thin air.

Dup · 29 Oct 2009 at 18:03

So it's useless then? maps over 3G whilst driving? Errr... nah.

On the other hand I hope they drive down the cost of the TomTom iPhone cradle for me.

Janesy B · 29 Oct 2009 at 18:06

I tried Wayfinder Navigation on my phone which uses 3g to download maps. It was pants. Most of the journey was spent showing me as a dot on a brown field as it tried downloading the maps.