The TomTom iPhone Car Kit has been getting a lot of media play the last few days. It briefly appeared on the UK’s iTunes Store and then TomTom announced that it will be available there for EUR99.99. But until now the company hasn’t said squat about the retail price here in the good ol’ States.
The press release:
Amsterdam, 24 September 2009 –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.
Kind of cold, eh? But at least all the deets are there. While the dock might be $119, that doesn’t including the $99 app. So for $219, you can either use your iPhone to navigate, or snag a dedicated, larger screen GPS unit. Personally, I would rather have the second option but that’s just me.
[via GPSTrackLog]
They need to wake up and realize that they’ve priced themselves out of the market since most stand alone units cost less than $200. The only way I would consider getting this is if the kit included a promo code to get the app for free.
I agree. Why spend $200 on a system retrofitted to an iPhone when for the same price you can get a product that was designed from the ground up to be ideally suited for GPS navigation (and probably other cool features not included with this TomTom solution). I’d buy it at a lower price point, but all things equal I’ll take the dedicated GPS…
I dont understand how TomTom could get the pricing so wrong. Was waiting for the car kit but bitterly dissappointed. TomTom have followed Apple in creating a big fuss over the product and then failing miserably on customer expectations
Too much money. Sorry Tom Tom, you just blew a sale.
I’d rather buy a stand-alone unit for that price. I’d drop $79.99 in a heartbeat for it, though. You listening TomTom?
Put it in the $79.99 – $129.99 range and you’ll sell more, which if I understand it correctly, is a good thing. Granted, that all depends on how many more you’ll sell. Maybe it won’t make a real difference in profits either way, so which is the preferable route? I’d think the iPhone, as how many iPhone users are going to go out and buy a stand-alone unit compared to how many will buy this for their iPhones? I would think a lot more for the ladder. iPhone users love their add-ons and they love getting whatever little functionality out of it they can. That’s what makes it great, its high versatile.
Had another thought. I think a lot of people would rather buy a stand-alone unit instead of this thing at its current price, and how many of those people will buy Garmin? In a battle between the two – Garmin wins. TomTom is good, but Garmin is just a sliver bit better.
Too expensive at that price, and won’t work well anywhere too hot.
The iPhone will likely shut off because of too much heat sitting in the window of a car.
Mine dies if it’s in the sun on the seat or dash – I’m in Southern California.
Sorry TT, I have issues with updates on my $149 stand alone, where I paid for quarterly updates, which are not great. Navigon for iPhone and details are more accurate than yours. Why would one buy TT for iPhone?
Not me.