Corporate Blog

We were proud to be the first voice guided turn-by-turn app on the iPhone, but we never expected we’d be the only nav app there. Today, our friends at AT&T joined us on the iPhone platform, making a turn-by-turn app available for $9.99 a month. Charges go on your AT&T mobile bill.

A couple of observations about the different approaches to similar applications:

· Gokivo integrated with iTunes: We chose to integrate our navigation with popular apps on the iPhone. So you can play music from iTunes and still get voice-guided navigation that you can hear. Gokivo automatically mutes music to make the navigation announcement and then returns to your music.

· Gokivo lets you navigate to addresses in Contacts: Gokivo can easily navigate to addresses in your contacts on the iPhone. AT&T Navigator does not currently allow an easy way to click on contacts and get immediate directions.

· With Gokivo, just shake to recalc your route! As we mentioned earlier, we built Gokivo to maximize its integration with other features of the iPhone. So if you need to recalc your route to avoid traffic or get back on course, just give the iPhone a shake. No button pushing required.

· Gokivo local search, ratings and content from Yahoo! We know any app is only as good as the content you find there. That’s why we partnered with Yahoo so that our users would get the latest in information and the widest possible assortment of opinions and reviews when looking for food, fun and entertainment, much more than just business listings. AT&T is using ratings and information from www.yellowpages.com and you may find that some categories have no ratings at all.

· No auto billing for Gokivo and cancel sub easily: There is no “free” version of AT&T Navigator. Users must download the app and then enter their phone number so the subscription can be billed on the AT&T mobile bill. But be careful, there’s also no way to cancel your AT&T subscription from the app. You’ll have to call or email AT&T to stop billing, even if you’ve deleted the app from your phone. Users will get a chance every month to use In App purchasing to get another 30 days of navigation with gokivo. Gokivo and the apple iTunes App Store neither allow auto-renewals nor free apps that charge a subscription.

Anyway, we salute our colleagues at AT&T and welcome them to the Apple store. Consumers always win when there’s healthy competition. Stay tuned to the App store for more nav apps. We certainly will be watching!