Two new TomTom products the TomTom Go 50 and Go 60 are now available in Australia, entering a market that has seen personal navigation devices become smarter and cheaper.
The 5-inch Go 50 is RRP $199 and the larger 6-inch screen Go 60 is RRP $249. Compare this to past GfK data from the category: the ASP (MAT) for portable car navigation in 2008 was $432, in 2009 it was $306 and $263 in 2010.
Back then navigation devices were about getting from A to B, today they are getting smarter, using real-time traffic information to avoid traffic jams and providing a faster alternate route or integrating with social media to provide restaurant recommendations to drivers.
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The TomTom Go 50 and Go 60 feature TomTom Traffic, which the brand says covers 99.9 per cent of all roads and uses crowd-sourced data from more than 400 million drivers globally to deliver accurate traffic information.
TomTom Traffic can provide a bird’s eye view or close up of traffic jams around drivers so they know exactly which roads are congested, the length of the delay and what is causing the delay. Drivers receive alerts if they are approaching a traffic jam too fast and will be offered a faster alternate route if one is available.
Winnie Kwan, senior marketing manager Asia Pacific, TomTom consumer said the new devices are empowering drivers by giving them the information they need faster.
“With the new TomTom Go products, we are enabling more drivers to get the best traffic information to make smarter driving decisions,” she said.
The TomTom Go 50 and 60 feature a one touch screen, rich user interface, simplified user interaction, 3D Maps, EasyPort Mount and Lifetime Map Updates.
Country director for Navman Australia and New Zealand Wendy Hammond said satellite navigation will continue to integrate into our existing technology habits.
“Sat navs are going to be designed to be more in tune with the way we live our lives, particularly with regards to how we use technology. For instance, being able to integrate the way we search for information using different devices, or the way we listen to recommendations from social media, and being able to integrate them seamlessly into a sat nav to make life easier on the roads,” she said.
For example the Navman SmartGPS (RRP $299) integrates with social media platforms – including Yelp and Foursquare – to provide live recommendations for what to do, see or visit depending on your location.