Corporate Blog

Windows Mobile has been a hot topic these last few days, and we want to join the party and let you know about some exciting Windows Mobile news of our own. We recently started a partnership with Sony Ericsson where forthcoming Windows Mobile devices from the company will come preloaded with Gokivo Navigator.

We are thrilled to be working with Sony Ericsson, but even more so than that, we are excited that more people can try out Gokivo. Windows Mobile is now the third platform that we are on (along with BlackBerry and the iPhone), and we can’t wait to get some feedback from new users who may be trying Gokivo for the first time.

The first phone that will be taking advantage of the new partnership is the Aspen smartphone, which was announced last week, and will debut in select markets in Q2 of this year. Over the coming months, we will be announcing numerous other Sony Ericsson phones that will be taking advantage of the deal, and we’ll be sure to let you know the various models.

If you have questions about getting Gokivo on your phone, or if you are a first time Gokivo user who may have some questions about the product, feel free to shoot us a note at gokivo@sutherlandgold.com.   You can also check out the press release about the announcement at http://bit.ly/9bGapA

When you download Gokivo for your cell phone, you are essentially giving yourself access to navigation capabilities at all times. We like to think that in a way, no matter where you are, Gokivo is always with you (in a non creepy way). Recently, we have taken this one step further and have given you a new portal to interact with Gokivo…you can now watch an official Gokivo video when you are surfing YouTube!

We put together a fun video that shows off Gokivo, and some of the ways it can help out when you are in navigation trouble. We’re not sure when our Academy Award is coming in the mail, but we’ll just say that we think our video may be the first on YouTube to prominently feature both a coconut and a turn-by-turn navigation app in the same story. 

If you are a Gokivo user, we think you will get a kick out of it, and for people who are looking for a navigation app to try, this should hopefully give you a little bit of information on what Gokivo is all about.

We are really pleased with the video, and we would love to know what you think. You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8irLKkZ0Nm0, and feel free to leave some comments with your thoughts or feedback.

As Apple continues to make changes to the App Store’s pricing system, we follow suit in our effort to give you Gokivo at the best price.

Today, we’re offering a new pricing option that allows you to download Gokivo for just $0.99, and then if you like it – and we think you will! – you can continue to use Gokivo without any commitment for $4.99 per month.

For those of us that have become dependent on Gokivo’s ability to effortlessly get us from Point A to Point B and keep us out of traffic jams, the app will still be available with a yearly pricing option of $39.99.

If you still haven’t given Gokivo a try, now’s your chance. With pricing like this, why wouldn’t you? You can find more information about Gokivo at http://www.gokivo.com. We’re also happy to answer any questions you might have. You can find us at info@networksinmotion.com.

Whether you are a current Gokivo user, or a perspective user who is thinking about giving it a try, we have good news…We’re lowering prices!

Unlike some of the deals you may see in the car lot, where you get a great price but find out the car is missing a back seat, we are lowering prices the old fashioned way—by simply dropping the price without removing any of the features.

For the Gokivo user who may only need navigation sparingly, we still offer a “pay as you go system” where you can sign up for 30 days without any commitment. This was recently lowered to only $4.99/month.

For those of us out there though who know that we need navigation year-round (the first step is admitting you have a problem), we are now offering an annual pricing option. For just $39.99, users can sign up for a whole year of Gokivo and save over 30% on the month to month price.

We’re hoping that the lower prices will encourage some people who may be on the fence to give Gokivo a try. If you decide to try it out for the first time and have some questions about the product, check out http://www.gokivo.com, or shoot us an email at info@networksinmotion.com.

You may have noticed that Apple has recently made it possible to develop apps that are free to download, yet still take advantage of the new in-app commerce system. We certainly did.

When we first released Gokivo, our original idea was to make it a free app, and then let people choose how many days of navigation they wanted to purchase once they were inside the app. This would provide a flexible pricing option, which would not force users to make a decision before they even downloaded the app.

Unfortunately, due to Apple’s policy, we were not able to do this. As a result, our first day in the App Store did not go as smoothly as we would have liked, and we had to change around our pricing.

Now that we have the opportunity though, we are reevaluating our pricing options. We understand the potential benefits that can come from having an app that is free to download, and we would love to give people the option to download the app and take advantage of our search functions for free, even if they didn’t want to pay for navigation.

At this point, we are going to weigh our options, but we would love to hear what you have to say. Send us your thoughts at info@networksinmotion.com, and let us know.

From the day we debuted the first turn-by-turn navigation app on the iPhone, we’ve been working non-stop to make sure we’re offering the best navigation experience available. But we’ve just gotten started. Things are about to get really exciting.

So for a limited time, we’re offering a limited number of iPhone users a chance to try Gokivo for free. Send us an email telling us in two sentences or less how Gokivo could help you find your way to work, school, movies, entertainment or other fun, and we’ll pay for a one-month trial of Gokivo—the best turn-by-turn app in the app store.
 
You won’t want to miss any of the exciting developments and improvements we have planned for Goikvo. So submit your two sentences and get all the deets on the free month by sending an email to nim@sutherlandgold.com.

We’re very proud today to introduce the all new Gokivo GPS Navigator in the Apple app store. Just as we were the first company to offer you a turn-by-turn navigation solution for the iPhone, we are the first to offer an upgraded version with major enhancements.

The New York Times has already checked it out (review here: http://bit.ly/16g6tE) and said it was a “notable improvement,” and worked faster than the competition to locate and calculate directions. As you can imagine, we are excited by this validation, but this review is just the start. What’s even more important than getting great press is wowing our users with a great product.

Shortly after the app was introduced, our engineers discovered that the iPhone firmware contained idiosyncrasies that didn’t allow for optimal GPS performance. This realization, along with our invaluable feedback, gave us a mission to fix GPS performance on the iPhone, as well as making the interface more intuitive. In coordination with Apple, we set out to optimize the configuration to better sync the performance of complicated turn-by-turn navigation and made dozens of changes and enhancements. And that took us to one final (and lengthy) step. Test it, retest it, and then test it again for good measure. We wanted to be sure that we were delivering a product that would produce the kind of results you asked for.

Some of the areas that we were able to upgrade include:

• Improved GPS position tracking for precision accuracy on the road
• Enhanced search interface
• Improved navigation functionality for a more robust experience
• Audio clarity with enhanced voice-prompt sound volumes
• Improved performance and memory management

On top of these upgrades, we’ve introduced what we think is the most consumer-friendly pricing model of any turn-by-turn navigation app for the iPhone, with no heavy upfront fees or automatic subscription renewals. A 30-day pass for the app is just $9.99 and does not automatically renew.

On the iPhone App Store, developers are constantly improving their products. We didn’t hustle to become the first turn-by turn app for the iPhone just for the distinction of being first—although we are proud of that—we hustled so that we could get to work on building the next generation of our app, and that will continue as we build future generations.

Gokivo for BlackBerry is now available in the UK, Western Europe, and Canada.

As people continue to read about Gokivo and talk with friends and family who are using it, we have seen (much to our delight!) that interest in Gokivo is spreading globally. As such, we made it a goal of ours to try and give everyone who wants to try the product an opportunity to use it.

Expanding Gokivo’s global reach will give countless new people the opportunity to try Gokivo, and this current deal is only the beginning of an expanded global presence that we envision for NIM.

We are currently offering a free 30 day trial period of Gokivo for BlackBerry. If you (or someone you know) may be curious about the product but doesn’t want to commit, you can now give Gokivo a try without being forced to pay upfront.

Gokivo is currently available on the BlackBerry Bold, and the Curve 8900 series.

If you have any questions about Gokivo’s availability in your country – shoot us an email at info@networksinmotion.com.

When we built Gokivo for the iPhone, we knew it would need great features to stand out in the crowded App Store. We think our traffic function is a huge part of what separates us from the competition, and we strive to give people an edge up on traffic that will make them always feel like they are in the carpool lane.

Here at NIM, we understand that getting stuck in traffic is no fun (and being out in Southern California, believe us – we understand), so we built Gokivo to help you avoid gridlock whenever possible. Gokivo calculates the best route to take based on the traffic conditions (avoidance is always the best option), and if you are forced to take a route that has congested traffic, Gokivo will monitor it in real-time so that you don’t have to wonder how long it’s going to take to get moving again.

To further help you in the fight against traffic, Gokivo also keeps track of past driving experiences (good and bad), and will tell you historical traffic information. Next time you are driving with your friend and they say, “Don’t go this way, the traffic is always terrible” feel free to prove them wrong.

Gokivo gives you the tools you need to attack traffic by combining the convenience of a portable GPS system with top of the line traffic information. You will be able to see the traffic coming, and if need be, take the steps to avoid it.

Here’s to traffic free drives for everyone.

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!