After a day in which we saw the TomTom iPhone car kit go up for pre-sale on the iTunes app store in Europe, and then get pulled down, TomTom decided that the best way to fight the rumor mill on pricing was to put out a news release saying how much it would cost. Here is their rather terse announcement:
TomTom announces today that the TomTom car kit for the iPhone will have a recommended retail price of EUR 99.99 or USD 119.95.
The TomTom car kit will be available this October and will be sold separately from the TomTom app. It will be compatible with the iPhone 2G, 3G and 3GS.
All further details on the car kit will be made available soon.
That brings the total price of app + car kit to $219.94. Not that great of a deal for a second rate navigator. This isn’t exactly difficult to foresee, but I’m going to predict that the kind of pricing pressure we’ve seen for PNDs will soon come to iPhone navigation apps, traffic services, and cradles. Unless TomTom has this sucker patented, I can’t imagine it will be many weeks before someone else announces a mount with an integrated chipset. I also expect to see the car kit discounted at various etailers, since they used the phrase “recommended retail price.”
EDIT: Source
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About Rich Owings
Personally I think that is a little Pricey! I like the Cradle but I’d like to see more cradles be able to hold my iPhone with the current rubberized protector I already have on it. Not everyone is going to want to take all that stuff off just to put it in that cradle. Thats not real user friendly. Most people I know have some sort of protector on their iPhone.
Maybe this might get some attention. Who knows.
Excellent point!
TomTom has said that their iPhone GPS cradle will work with other apps, too, so it might be nice to use with other navigation apps like Navigon’s iPhone app, which is superior to TomTom’s and $10 cheaper.
My main gripes with TomTom are mostly with the app (although the car kit price is a bit too high, remember it has its own gps unit builtin): no traffic information (that’s really gross!), regression in advanced planning (no intermediate waypoints allowed, only from A to B) and poor reception (but that’s an iPhone issue “fixed” with the carkit)…
Personally I think it is ridiculously overpriced. By the time you pay for the application in the app store, and then this cradle you will have paid over $200. You can get a stand alone unit these days for cheaper. I know I know, its nice to have a all in one device, but at a reasonable price I can appreciate it. Drop the price and I am in.
@Nooch: you’re absolutely right. Another thing: I my wife takes our car, she can take a standalone TomTom alright, but my iPhone? I’d rather keep that with me. So – if it would be cheaper than a standalone unit, it might make sense – but at that price, I doubt I’ll go for it (although I would like it anyway …)
Its kind of lame to have gps apps for the iphone that are obviously for automotive use without having any real reviews of any car cradles, whether from tomtom or navigon or whoever. Given the ongoing safety questions about the use of phones, gps units and etc. in cars, given the part that their use seems to play in contributing to accidents, the picture of somebody driving along, coffee in one hand, cigarette in mouth, and phone/gps in the other hand as they steer with their knees while peering owlishly at the little biddy map comes to mind.