By Aimee Chanthadavong
TomTom has redesigned its portable navigation device (PND) with hopes that it will help give the market a much needed uplift.
The new TomTom GO range, available in a 5-inch model (GO500, RRP $249) and 6-inch model (GO600, RRP $299), features a new user interface that’s map-orientated, minimising the need for users to search via the main menu. Users will also have access to free lifetime TomTom traffic, available through a smartphone Bluetooth connection, as well as map updates. Buildings and landmarks are also brought to life in 3D for easier navigation.
Chris Kearney, TomTom Asia Pacific vice president and managing director, said the Australian market has moved from being flat last year to seeing — for the first time — a single digit decline this year. However, he believes the TomTom GO range will bring people — especially second and third time buyers — back to the market.
“What we’re seeing is second and third time buyers are coming back to market and what we’re ensuring with this launch is making sure there’s a reason to come back to the market,” he said.
“If you entered the market three or four years ago you paid $790 for a good device, but it didn’t have live traffic, you had to pay $180 for another map and there was limited capacity for touchscreen. Now you get all this technology to come back to the market for at a price that is ridiculously cheap.
“We’ve had to offer more to the market but the market is responding to those offers.”
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In the UK market, which is roughly six to nine months ahead of the curve on adoption rates, TomTom saw a growth in unit value in Q1 2012 as a result of the release of the GO range, and this is expected to continue in the current year. Previous to this, the UK market was flat.
Kearney believes a similar reaction will occur in Australia with expectations 700,000 units will be sold this year – a number not far short from new car sale numbers.
“You have to bring to the market something that brings people back,” he said.
“Our stuff has been very good lately but we haven’t done anything different and I don’t think anyone has done anything different in navigation on the way you play on a PND. If you compare us to our competitors we’ve all put out same models with better pricing but the TomTom GO takes our core assets of maps and traffic and presents them more in a way people will come to use it.”
The core customer group for these units according to TomTom will be male professionals aged 35- to 55-year-old who are on the road a lot. Kearney said the company will focus on pushing its in-store base activities to encourage these people to buy again, including first catalogue drops this week and next week.
“We’ve taken a different slant on how we come to market,” he said. “We have a different platform which will help us in the future.”
The TomTom GO, available in 5-inch and 6-inch models, has been redesigned to focus on map visuals rather than fiddly menus.