“AT&T Navigator has been one of our most popular and best-performing apps since we launched it last year,”said Mark Collins,vice president of voice and data products for AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “With the new iPhone OS 3.0 software,we’re expanding the advantages of true turn-by-turn navigation […] to millions more customers.”
Price pressure
Only a few days after Gokivo,from main competitor Networks In Motion,TeleNav and AT&T are providing a similar off-board application at the exact same price. It does not seem the two big North American players are willing to lower their price at this stage. However,unlike doing business with wireless operators,barriers to entry on the App Store are very low and it is only a matter of days or weeks until a larger set of competitors enter the arena.
TeleNav and NIM will face three new types of competitors. The first one is TomTom which brand is much more powerful than the white label providers. The second type of competitors is made of a large number of tier two and tier three on-board mobile navigation players such as NAVIGON,Nav N Go,ALK and Sygic which pricing will be more affordable,at least for consumers willing to pay a one time fee. As an example,Sygic’s software,currently in approval phase by Apple,will cost $79.99 for a lifetime license. The third type of competitors will be made of ad-funded products such as Amaze,which developer Locationet is currently porting to the iPhone.