As the shopping season is going on for few weeks, iPhone GPS apps providers jumped onto the ‘On-Sale’ wagon. Especially with the new features with every update, it’s the right time for you to grab one if you haven’t bought anything so far or if you are still on the fence as to whether to go for iPhone GPS app or standalone GPS device. Decide fast and don’t miss the golden opportunity.

I have compiled the navigation apps that are on sale as of today (17^th Dec 2009) for your reference.

NAVIGON AG Apps:

MobileNavigator NorthAmerica – USD 59.99 (until 11^th Jan 2010)
MobileNavigator Europe – USD 94.99 (until 11^th Jan 2010)
MobileNavigator Australia – USD 54.99 (until 11^th Jan 2010)
MobileNavigator Russia – USD 79.99 (until 11^th Jan 2010)
MobileNavigator South Africa – USD 69.99 (until 31^st Dec 2009)
MobileNavigator Gulf+ – USD 99.99 (until 31^st Dec 2009)
MobileNavigator Brazil – USD 69.99 (until 11^th Jan 2010)
MobileNavigator Turkey – USD 69.99 (until 11^th Jan 2010)

TomTom International BV Apps:

TomTom U.S.A – USD 49.99 (until 28^th Dec 2009)
TomTom U.S & Canada – USD 69.99 (until 28^th Dec 2009)

Magellan App:

Magellan RoadMate 2010 North America – USD 79.99 (for limited time only)

ALK Technologies Ltd Apps:

CoPilot Live North America – USD 24.99 (until 31^st Dec 2009)
CoPilot Live Europe – USD 84.99 (until 31^st Dec 2009)

It’s been a great time of the year for those who still haven’t purchased any GPS app for iPhone. Day by day almost every GPS apps available in App Store are offered in sale for limited time period. Also few of those GPS app providers are releasing updates with most-wanted features to entice the customers.

It’s Navigon MobileNavigator’s turn this week to announce delightful news. It not only released an update with more features to its existing app, also it dropped its price on all of its global editions.

Here is the price list of all region apps.

MobileNavigator NorthAmerica – USD 59.99 (valid till 11^th Jan 2010)
MobileNavigator Europe – USD 94.99 (valid till 11^th Jan 2010)
MobileNavigator Australia – USD 54.99 (valid till 11^th Jan 2010)
MobileNavigator Russia – USD 79.99 (valid till 11^th Jan 2010)
MobileNavigator South Africa – USD 69.99 (valid till 31^st Dec 2009)
MobileNavigator Gulf+ – USD 99.99 (valid till 31^st Dec 2009)
MobileNavigator Brazil – USD 69.99 (valid till 11^th Jan 2010)
MobileNavigator Turkey – USD 69.99 (valid till 11^th Jan 2010)

New features in the latest update 1.4.0 (Only in NorthAmerica, Europe)

- Enhanced Pedestrian Navigation
- Google Local Search
- Coordinate Input
- SOS/DirectHelp
- Turn-by-Turn RouteList
- Manual zooming in 2D and 3D while navigation
- Favorites are being displayed in the map
- Country Info when crossing borders
- Switch between “Music” and “Audiobook” mode for iPod playback
- Phonebook contacts can be selected as interim destinations
- Using contact groups in the phonebook is now possible
- Faster start up time
- Traffic messages can be easily browsed by sliding the screens

Another GPS app is offering a limited time deal from yesterday. It’s Magellan RoadMate 2010 NorthAmerica’s company MiTAC Digital Corp announced that if you buy it’s app for $79.99 between 12/04/2009 to 12/08/2009, you will get $20 off from it’s premium car kit.

Here is the offer detail.

Purchase the Magellan RoadMate app, register it at magellangps.com and receive a coupon code valid towards $20 off the purchase of the Premium Car Kit from the Magellan website. Coupon codes will be sent email within 7 days after registration is closed.

Next to Tom Tom, Magellan GPS app is the second one to offer a complete in-car GPS navigation solution with a car kit, which will transform your iPod touch into a GPS navigator with a built-in GPS receiver.

To qualify for this special offer, follow the steps below.

1. Purchase the app between 12/04/2009 and 12/08/2009
2. Register by 12/21/2009 at www.magellan.com
3. Purchase the Premium Car Kit by 01/31/2010 on the magellan website.

The comparatively inexpensive iPhone GPS app CoPilot Live North America is on sale for just $24.99 throughout December. ALK Technology seems to keep the Thanksgiving Sale (yeah, it was available $19.99 during last two weeks) momentum for a while. On 2^nd December, they announced the similar deal for another month after releasing an update for this app.

CoPilot’s latest update (version 8.0.0.512) is mostly of in-app purchase features and some improvements and enhancements of existing features. Now you can avail the Premium Live Services for additional $19.99 for a year, unlike Navigon MobileNavigator’s live traffic for two years for $14.99 as of today. With these live services, Live Traffic, Live Gas Prices and Live Local Search, ALT also jumped into the competition between Tom Tom and Navigon MobileNavigator, which also released notable and compelling features in the recent updates. Anyway, Live Local Search and Live Fuel Prices features are very unique in CoPilot and not available in other two now.

Here are the three premium live service features of CoPilot.

Live Traffic information featuring high quality, constantly updated traffic information from INRIX.  It will provide you details about reported incidents on-route or at your destination, and can automatically calculate an alternative route to avoid delays.

Live Local Search so you can find your favorite brand, local business or other nearby product or service through access to location-specific Internet search.

Live Fuel Prices so you can avoid seeing your car’s empty light come on.  CoPilot Live V8 will instantly find and guide you to the cheapest gas station near your current location.

Macnn reported that NAVIGON has submitted new update (version 1.4.0) for MobileNavigator to the App Store and it’s pending approval as of today. Also, it released NAVIGON Traffic Live as In-App purchase with few more features in the last month and now it’s ready for another update with 13 new features with enhanced pedestrian mode for navigation while walking and Google Local Search feature.

The v1.4.0 release will have 13 new features, including an enhanced pedestrian mode for navigation while walking. A new interface will take advantage of the compass in the iPhone 3GS, shifting map position in tandem with a user’s orientation. Google Local Search should meanwhile allow quick access to subject and place searches, with matching directions.

Geographic coordinates will be usable as destinations, and optionally e-mailable to other iPhones. More features should be revealed when Apple approves the update.

For the Thanks Giving week sale, US & Canada version of MobileNavigator is available for $69.99 to compete with its rival Tom Tom on the same ground.

Most probably, this update is only for MobileNavigator North America (version 1.3.0) and MobileNavigator Europe (version 1.3.0) as other region MobileNavigator apps (Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and Australia) are still in lower version 1.2.0 or 1.2.1

[Via MacNN]

Tom Tom US & Canada app (version 1.2), which was submitted last week with cool new features, is available for download in App Store from yesterday. This is a major update of this app, which includes the features that its competitor MobileNavigator North America from NAVIGON AG touted for sometime. With the new, but much-wanted, features by the customers like Text-To-Speech, Advanced Lane Guidance and In-built iPod Player Support, Tom Tom is ready to give a tough competition with MobileNavigator, which has been on top of the Top Grossing app from it’s launch. New users who are tempted to buy GPS app for iPhone will have more than one option but be indecisive as the features are more or less same in these two top apps.

Tom Tom, with an additional feature, goes one step ahead of its competitors to add support for original iPhone and iPod touch devices though those customers need to purchase Tom Tom Car Kit for the built-in GPS receiver to turn the devices into GPS navigator. It looks somewhat good for those who were the much-early adaptors of iPhone and iPod touch, but thinking of spending another US $120 for the car kit seems pretty bad. But at least they have an option.

New features added in version 1.2:

• Advanced Lane Guidance in both portrait and landscape mode
• Text-to-Speech in English US, English UK, English Australia, French Canada and Spanish Latin America
• Help Me! embergency menu
• iPod player support
• Support for original iPhone and iPod touch (all models)

Existing feature updates in version 1.2:

• Improved search and route summary screens
• Free updated map from v8.30 to v8.35
• Updated points of interest database
• Updated IQ Routes database with millions of new measurements

Tom Tom US & Canada app (version 1.2) is still available for $99.99 for new users and is free for existing customers.

Price: $99.99 (Tom Tom US & Canada)
Compatible With: iPhone and iPod touch
Required OS Version: iPhone OS 3.0 or later
Download Link: iTunes

Finally, Tom Tom app for iPhone is going to get much-awaited features Text-to-Speech and lane guidance in the coming update for free. CNET reports that Tom Tom has already submitted Apple this major update for review and is pending approval.

The update will add text-to-speech (TTS) for spoken street names and points of interest (POI) as part of the device’s directions, graphic lane guidance which displays a visual representation of complex highway intersections with indications of valid lanes for the route

In this update, Tom Tom adds few more features: In-app iPod controls, free map update, safety camera database update and, and a “Help menu” offering a shortcut to emergency number and directions to the nearest emergency services.

For those who already purchased Tom Tom US & Canada navigation app will get this update for free and new customers can get this app for the existing price of $99.99.

Price: $99.99 (Tom Tom US & Canada)
Compatible With: iPhone
Required OS Version: iPhone OS 3.0 or later
Download Link: iTunes

NAVIGON AG, Germany based manufacturer of GPS devices and GPS navigation software, released today an update for it’s native GPS iPhone app MobileNavigator North America. By this update, the well-acclaimed leading GPS app gets Live Traffic in US and Canada feature for $19.99 in In-App purchase. Also, this includes two more features:  Extended map area search after destination input, launching the app in landscape mode.

Though NAVIGON AG ceased it’s North American sales of it’s consumer GPS navigation devices, it’s the first company to launch full featured mobile navigation native app for iPhone after Apple allowed developers access to GPS information from the iPhone. From the day it’s launched in App Store, it’s been the leading app in it’s kind with more and more positive reviews and accolades from the consumer. Frequent updates with new and much needed features make this app a must-have one.

MobileNavigator North America is already packed with rich features like, Real View Pro, Lane Assistant Pro, Text-to-Speech voice guidance and in-built iPod controls. With Live Traffic addition, it becomes the one and only app that has this feature in App Store, even the much-advertised Tom Tom doesn’t have it.

Personally, as a MobileNavigator user myself, I would like to see route summary with list of streets, freeways in the next update.

Price: $89.99 + $19.99 (In App purchase for Live Traffic)
Compatible With: iPhone
Required OS Version: iPhone OS 3.0 or later
Download Link: iTunes