Tom Tom GPS navigation in iPhone

It’s a sign of times. Mobile phones have become fully enabled GPS navigation devices. After early lead from lesser know GPS navigation companies, like NAVIGON, now major players are rushing to the market to catch up. Tom Tom has just released mobile phone enabled version of its navigation software for iPhone. This application is only available in Europe but the rest of the world will follow soon.

First impressions of Tom Tom’s iPhone navigation tool are quite positive. I’ll just highlight a few comments, after The Inquirer:

“onscreen mapping interface … is pretty much identical to every other TomTom device on the market”

“other makers have flashier interfaces …. but TomTom is sticking to the principle that less is more, plumping for speed and simplicity rather than gorgeous graphics and distracting bells and whistles.”

“TomTom for iPhone works equally well in landscape or portrait modes, switching slickly between the two… [however]…as soon as you get a call… it defaults to portrait view.”

“TomTom for iPhone stood up particularly well against its standalone siblings with route replanning taking around five seconds on average and the lag between map position and actual location being accurate to about 10 metres.”

“Where the App really shines is in the way it integrates with other bits of the iPhone's system and software… [in other mobile navigation applications] calls can cause the mapping system to fall over …[but]… TomTom seems to beaver away happily in the background … and it picks up where it left off as soon as you drop the line.”

As with other applications for iPhone, initial map download is a hefty 1.4GB. TomTom also sells a dashboard mount for the iPhone, enabling using the phone in the car the same way as traditional portable GPS navigation devices. Unfortunately, there is no free version of Tom Tom's software but relatively low price, in comparison to traditional devices, makes up at least partially for that omission.