While it ain’t a ground breaking piece of kit, Navigon’s just announced iPhone car kit has a certain allure other manufacturers haven’t been able to achieve.  We’re essentially referring to the arm that mounts the device to the windshield - it just looks like it’s dripping in high end Euro design.

But what ‘s really important to note is that it only costs $50.  The caveat you ask?  There is no built-in GPS so it won’t work with your iPod Touch, so it’s essentially a cradle that includes a cigarette adapter and 5′ cord.  Don’t get us wrong.  It’s nothing to snub your nose at, but it’s a simple as pie setup.

Right now Navigon is actually selling their iPhone Car Kit for $44.99 until February 3rd, where upon it will increase to the aforementioned price.  Their app, though, is just $25 (single region only), and provides a full featured GPS experience.  

NAVIGON Launches iPhone Car Kit at Macworld Expo 2011

Includes Design Mount that is Easy Fix to the Windshield, Car Charger and Extra-Long Connection Cable

Macworld Expo, Moscone Center, San Francisco, California, Booth #943 (January 27, 2011) —NAVIGON AG, a leading provider of mobile phone on-board navigation, today announced the launch of a design focused car kit for the iPhone at the Macworld Expo 2011. The NAVIGON Car Kit consists of an iPhone mounting device and designer suction pad holder, an Apple-certified connection cord and a car charger, which powers the iPhone while on the road.
“The iPhone is the most elegant smartphone available, therefore a mount should never get in the way of showcasing the design,” said Gerhard Mayr, vice-president worldwide mobile phones & new markets, NAVIGON. “The new NAVIGON car kit is a stylish example of German tech design with its “barely there” look, letting iPhone users navigate in style.” The mount is easy to fix to the windshield, reduces driver distraction and positions the iPhone for optimal GPS signal. The included car charger and the five foot long connection cable (combined $25 value) make sure the iPhone battery doesn’t drain. The NAVIGON Car Kit is now available for the iPhone 3G/S and 4 and sells for $49.99 with free shipping (introductory price of $44.99 until Feb 3, 2011) from www.bringmobi.com.

At the Macworld Expo, NAVIGON is located at booth #943. The company will give away 30 licenses for the award winning MobileNavigator app via a Twitter wall among attendees stopping by the booth. All that is necessary to enter the contest is to include a defined hashtag (#) (revealed at the show) in a tweet. Winners are announced each day at 4pm on Twitter.

NAVIGON MobileNavigator* is the first universal navigation app of a major GPS company that runs natively on the iPhone and the iPad. Users with MobileNavigator installed can use the app on both devices without extra charges. It utilizes the iPad’s large display and user interface with a higher resolution, and new menus. Route planning is convenient on the iPad, showing a large scrollable, multi-touch map to select destinations in simple taps. Users can plan their routes at home on the iPad and then send them to their iPhone for navigation on the go.

At the NAVIGON booth, attendees can also check out the NAVIGON help2park app, the first in a series of free single-feature apps for the iPhone that NAVIGON will release throughout 2011, marking the company’s 20th anniversary. help2park assists drivers with finding a parking spot nearby. A clean and easy to use interface helps to find parking options within a defined area – including addresses and distances from the current location. If NAVIGON’s MobileNavigator is installed on the iPhone, drivers are guided directly to the parking space of choice.

*MobileNavigator 1.7.0 is compatible with iPhone 4, 3GS and 3G and iPad 3G. The app also runs on first generation iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad WLAN, but third party accessories for GPS reception are required for these devices. *iOS4 multitasking is supported by the iPhone 4 and 3GS only.

For more information, please visit: www.navigon.com/iphone.

The CoPilot app for the iPhone offers free turn-by-turn directions for LIFE.  That’s right, it’s totally free.  But like most things in the app store there’s an up sell.  Drop $2.99 a month, or $19.99 a year and you’ll also get voice guided turn-by-turn directions.  The mapping system is stored locally to your iPhone, letting you chose a small area (megabytes of storage used) or the entire North America (1.3GBs).

Other features:

• 30 days free full-featured CoPilot Live navigation with Text to Speech voice guidance, 3D maps and advanced trip planning
• Free lifetime use turn-by-turn directions with automatic route calculation and 2D maps
• Full street level maps of the US and Canada
• Detailed street maps downloaded via WiFi and stored on the iPhone, so there’s no need to rely on your data network for navigation
• Navigate to a street address or one of millions of businesses using integrated real-time local search
• Free CoPilot LiveLink location sharing lets friends and family know where you are via the Internet, Facebook or on-screen in CoPilot on their own phone
• Customers who prefer to download the complete map of the US and Canada via iTunes rather than WiFi can do so by purchasing the lifetime use, full-featured CoPilot Live North America GPS navigation app via the AppStore.

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Wow, just wow.  Not even 24 hours has gone by and the Google Maps with turn-by-turn directions for Android devices rumor has become official.  As suspected this will be a free app and will be available when Android 2.0 launches sometime next month.

The feature set is robust to say the least and will easily rival, if not eclipse previous GPS applications and even some stand alone GPS devices. My favorite is that ability to view ‘street view’ before the turn such that you can view landmarks before you change direction.  Much like most stand alone GPS devices, Google Maps Navigation offers voice guidance, turn-by-turn directions, 3D view and the ability to search by point of interest instead of just address.  And they’ve also added Google Voice Search.  There a few vids of the app after the ‘leap’, so be sure to check those out.

Right now the app is advert free, but given Google’s model I’d expect them to start plugging those in as we move closer to a nonbeta version.  So for instance, you’re taking a trip to San Francisco from LA. You might see ads for food stops, gas stations and such.  More local routes might show you coffee shops or stores that relate to your previous search history, and so forth.

Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll see this version of maps appears on the iPhone anytime soon, if ever.  This would supplant any paid app in the app store and cause Apple to lose out on potential earnings, something they seem to have a problem with.

Today rumors emerged that Google is in the process of developing their very own navigation app for smartphones running the Android OS.  It’s not clear if the application would be more robust than the iPhone’s current Google Map application and offer turn-by-turn directions, but given that they own the Android OS, and can essentially do whatever they want, it’s more likely than not.

Providing greater credence to the rumor is that Google just discontinued their relationship with Tele Atlas earlier this October, which charged Google for use of their map info – Google has a contract with them until 2013 to work on International maps.  The break away from the map service provider indicates that Google has amassed enough map data over the years to go at it alone and in all likelihood offer an ad supported free version. 

How this will play out with US carriers is another story – they profit from charging for turn-by-turn directions – since they could very well stop offering phones with the Android OS.  But that would probably result in what will be perceived as business suicide, especially seeing as the Android OS is the #1 competitor to Apple’s iPhone OS, something only AT&T has access to at this point.  As to whether or not this will impact the iPhone’s Google Map offering is not clear, but since Apple profits off the sales of other map applications in their iTunes app store, it’s highly unlikely that well see a free Google Maps version in the app store with a turn-by-turn feature.

[via TFTS]

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Now, don’t get too excited because Sygic’s app does NOT have the official ok from Apple, at least not yet.  And yes, this unamed app does provide turn-by-turn directions courtesy of the iPhone’s built-in GPS.  Its other features include voice prompts, points of interest, multiple country support and maps that can be stored in the device’s memory.  Notably, the app took about 30 seconds to boot up, but it’s ‘turn-by-turn’ on the iPhone!

[theiPhoneBlog]