With the maturing of Apple’s ‘App’ store, the saying that Apple utilise in their marketing communications ‘there’s an app for that’ really is becoming more and more relevant and it is literally becoming a case of – if you want it you can find it in the App store.

Last year when Apple released the iPhone 3.0 software update, it gave the ability for integration between external devices and applications running on the phone. To showcase this TomTom was featured in the Keynote presentation where they announced not only their turn-by-turn navigation app, but the windscreen mount to securely hold your phone in the car.

So no, this isn’t some kind of crazy just released news, but it had taken some time for the cradle to become available in the Australian market. My thoughts prompting me to write a post however were more around what I feel is the almost obscene price that TomTom are looking to charge for this application & mount.

The price for the application to run on your phone is somewhere in the vicinity of $99, now that is pricey in application standards for the iPhone. Infact this app is one of the highest grossing apps currently in the store – so some people must be buying it. In me swallowing the thought of spending this amount on an application I thought about it and, yes this is probably a worthwhile price to pay considering the costs that would go into developing and providing the service. Then comes the window mount…

The window mount allows you to dock your iPhone on your windscreen, charge your phone, call handsfree, enhance the GPS performance of you phone, and enhances the turn by turn voice instructions. All for the wonderful price of $129.00. My question here then is, with the increased popularity of portable GPS systems they have severely come down in price. What would compel a customer to spend as much on an application and a windscreen mount when you can spend the same amount or perhaps a little more and have a dedicated device which is centred around providing you with turn by turn directions.

The charging of your phone is certainly convenient, hands free calling is also great, however for this a large number of GPS systems incorporate Bluetooth to this this now anyway, or your car may have the function built in. As or the enhanced GPS function, well wouldn’t you get the best performance from a dedicated GPS??

Admittedly it certainly has it’s merits as well, given that if you don’t already own a GPS you can probably get away with a slightly cheaper option in buying the TomTom for your iPhone. You do get the great touch screen on the iPhone which completely beats all of the other touch screens on GPS devices I have used, and it’s one less device to worry about.

So I can see that it certainly has its pro’s and cons, but I don’t see this as something that I would run out and get. Especially given that we already own a dedicated GPS, however when the time comes that the current unit needs replacing, this could be a viable option.