Car phone-satnav combo seeks out new customers

TomTom's cradle turns the iPhone application into a usable sat nav device.

If you're one of the majority of New Zealand motorists getting from A to B perfectly well without the help of a GPS, new ploys are being dreamed up to get your custom.

Dutch company TomTom sells its navigation software for Apple's iPhone, a clever move made smarter by the car kit it released late last year.

The car kit's built-in GPS boosts the iPhone's barely adequate satellite reception and also turns the device into a hands-free phone that can be legally used while driving.

At about $330 for software and cradle, the iPhone set up is about the same price as a standalone TomTom satnav unit. It includes a phone charger and outlet - but no cable - so the iPhone will plug into a suitably equipped car sound system.

There are benefits in combining phone and satnav. The user stays within the new law that in the two months to the end of December saw 902 tickets issued for people talking on cellphones while driving.

Also, since a new release of TomTom's iPhone software, the device can be set to navigate to addresses contained in the phone's contact list or from browsing the internet.

If it wasn't for the peculiarities of spoken New Zealand English and the challenge of Maori place names, particularly those with a "wh", TomTom users on the latest iPhone, the 3GS, could use its voice control feature to tell the device where to go.

But TomTom's Sydney-based marketing manager, Chris Kearney, was unable to say when or if the technology would ever have sufficient mastery of the Kiwi accent to give us the benefit of that feature.

Motorists who never leave the beaten track can still benefit from a satnav, according Kearney.

The devices' IQ Routes feature can suggest the best of a number of possible roads to take at particular times, based on journey information uploaded by users to the TomTom website.

That information is overlaid on maps to see how actual speeds compare with speed limits, to gauge traffic conditions. At times of day when speeds are significantly below the allowed limit, that suggests the route is congested.

That explains why a satnav might send you down one road to your destination at 8am on Monday, and a different one at 10pm on Sunday. At times when the device knows traffic will be crawling along a particular road, it will suggest an alternative.

IQ Routes will plot a faster route for up to a third of all journeys, TomTom claims.

Kearney says the company has records of tens of millions of journeys, enabling optimised routes.

Users can also inform TomTom via the internet of map inaccuracies. If they find the satnav tells them a wrong speed limit for a section of road, or misdirects them about intersection turning rules, the correct information can be sent to TomTom.

Details are checked before map changes are made, unless the company receives multiple consistent notifications of an inaccuracy, suggesting a road rule change.

When a new road opens, such as the extension of the southwestern motorway in Mt Roskill, TomTom relies on its New Zealand mapping partner, GeoSmart, to provide an update, Kearney says.

Map updates, and whether users should have to pay for them - having forked out $130 for the iPhone map version - look likely to become a touchy subject. Kearney says TomTom is considering the introduction of a subscription payment method entitling users to updates.

"It costs a lot of money to keep maps up to date," he says, in justification of ongoing charges.

Kearney won't say how many iPhone users of its software TomTom has in New Zealand, but says it has been the biggest money-earner through Apple's online store for a number of weeks. That may not saying much when most of the available apps cost under $10, versus TomTom's $130.

Less than 10 per cent of the New Zealand vehicle fleet is equipped with a GPS.