Corporate Blog

Shortly after we launched Gokivo on the iPhone, we began to hear user feedback about some anomalies with GPS performance that we’d never encountered before on other platforms. It seemed to us that people were saying the GPS was good, it just wasn’t great. So we dug in.

What we discovered working with Apple is that the firmware on the phone was not really optimized for turn-by-turn navigation, which requires some pretty complicated technology. To get turn-by-turn right, you have to send hundreds of messages to a handheld device at one time. You’ve got to tell the device where it is, which direction it’s about to turn and calculate real-time distance just to name a few of the complicated simultaneous actions that are occurring.

Turn-by-turn had never been done on the iPhone before, and by watching the first wave of Gokivo users, we ended up learning a lot about the platform. An advantage of being the first turn-by-turn app available is that a lot of people have had the chance to try Gokivo and tell us what they think.

We have heard your feedback, and we want you to know that improvements are on the way. In the coming days, we will roll out the latest version of Gokivo. Turn by Turn 2.0, you could say.

When we first launched Gokivo, there was some confusion about pricing, so we want to clarify that now. The app is going to cost $9.99, and that purchase will include the first 30 days of navigation. Once the first 30 days have passed, you will have the option to pay another $9.99 for the next 30 days. You will not have to download the app multiple times though.

For current Gokivo subscribers, we have good news…you will get 30 days of navigation for free! From the moment you download the new upgrade, you will have 30 days of navigation available (if you have previously paid for days left on your account, it will simply reset you to 30), and once those are over, you will be in the same boat as new subscribers and will have the option of whether you want to renew or not.

We are excited about the new upgrade, and can’t wait to hear your thoughts. Keep your eyes open on the app store, because we should be there any day now.

As a follow up to our last post, we want to go into a little more detail about what exactly you get when you download the $0.99 cent app, and what you get with the monthly subscription.

Basic download of the Gokivo app

Our partnership with Yahoo! is one of the most exciting aspects of the new app, and everyone that pays to download the app will get to take full advantage. When you want to perform a search, Gokivo uses the iPhone GPS to pinpoint where you are, and then uses your location to tap into the Yahoo! search database and find search results close to you.

Some examples of search categories include: restaurants, movie theaters, hotels, gas stations and ATMs. Whatever it is that you choose to search for, Gokivo will pull up a map and then show all the nearest applicable results. The partnership with Yahoo! also means that Gokivo users have access to Yahoo! Local’s ratings and reviews, so you will be able to quickly monitor the quality of your search results as well.

As far as navigating to these places goes, the basic $0.99 cent download will give you written directions to wherever you want to go, but not voice guided directions.

Monthly subscription to Gokivo

The monthly subscription costs $9.99/month and includes every feature in the app. When you select a place you want to go, instead of getting a list of directions to take, you will get voice-prompted directions that use GPS to follow you while you go and make sure you get to your destination.

While we understand that consistent, accurate navigation is the most important part of our app, we also wanted to make sure that people got more than that. Here are some of the other functions we have included in the subscription model of Gokivo

· Real-time traffic alerts warn you about delays along your route and allow you to easily detour around traffic as needed – simply give the iPhone a shake and you will be prompted to take a detour

· Have an at a glance view of estimated arrival times, and the distance between you and your destination

· Enjoy your music library while navigating! Listen to your tunes, and then when a voice needs to direct you where to go, the music will fade

· Integrate your contacts to navigate to a business or friend’s house

As a whole, we think that both options can provide value depending on what someone may want. If you are someone who decides that voice prompted turn by turn navigation is what you are interested in, we feel confident that our app will provide everything you are looking for.

If you are someone who just wants to be able to tap into Yahoo! to search locally and always be informed of what is around you, then it sounds like just downloading the app and not paying for the subscription is for you.

We expect different users to select different options, and hopefully, you will select whatever is right for yourself.

It was really great to get Gokivo launched yesterday in the app store. But the launch was admittedly not perfect.

We want to clarify how our pricing for the app works… Users pay 99 cents to get access to the maps and all of the local information provided by our partner Yahoo! Local, as well as one-click access to the great discovery features in the app. Looking for a place to eat nearby? Just click “restaurants” in the category section and users instantly see what’s around them. Need a tank of gas quickly? Just click “gasoline” and instantly see what’s nearby. That is what you get for 99 cents.

If you want voice guided turn-by-turn navigation to one of these destinations, there’s a different price. For $9.99 a month users get immediate access to the first and only turn-by-turn, voice guided app currently on the iPhone. Delivering an in-dash quality navigation experience isn’t easy and it isn’t cheap - it takes a lot of work and money to deliver all these features and functionality that’s included in a turn-by-turn navigation app; and unlike product with maps on the device, we are updating maps and search indexes constantly. subscription based navigation apps have been generally priced at $9.99 “in the market”…..and Apple now has options in line with that. If you want free step by step directions, just touch the blue right arrow for more detail, scroll down to “Walking Directions”.

Some users also felt that the initial description of the app did not make clear that turn-by-turn navigation was only available to users who chose to subscribe. We quickly updated our description in the app store to make it much clearer about the pricing for the navigation.

But wait there’s more in the misstep department. Due to an error in the build that was initially posted in the iPhone app store some users were told they would have to pay 99 cents a minute for turn-by-turn navigation. Yikes!! Clearly a mistake on our part and one we quickly corrected as soon as we noticed, the update should be up in the store shortly. These (1 minute and 10 minute) were part of the QA test build and were there to test the new in app billing with out having to wait 30 days to resubscribe.

What can we do now? Certainly we apologize to anyone who felt our description of the app could have been clearer. We agree and we’ve changed that. To those who saw the incorrect “per minute” pricing, we apologize for that bonehead mistake and hope it won’t discourage you from trying this great application with some really awesome features that have never been available on the iPhone.

So it’s onward and upward from here. Stay tuned for new features and capabilities in Gokivo.

Since the day Apple said they were opening up their apps to navigation developers, we’ve been on the move. We’ve long thought Gokivo, our consumer brand, was prime for iPhone development, so we hit the ground running. Ok, we sprinted. So fast that we’re one of the first navigation apps in the app store for 3.0, which went live today.

While we (clearly) love navigation and knew it would be great on the iPhone, we wanted to go a step further. So, we struck a deal with Yahoo! Local to provide Gokivo users with comprehensive and robust local search and content within the app. More specifically, the app helps people easily get where they want to go with voice prompted navigation, as well as get access to Yahoo! local data, including contact information and ratings and reviews.

As you’ll see when you check out the product, we really took advantage of all the new software functionality (literally EVERY single one of the new features of the software) in an effort to make Gokivo look like a native iPhone app, and offer as much functionality within the product as possible.

Below are a few of the cool new features we listed in our press release today:

• Robust hyper-local search and discovery powered by Yahoo! Local. One-click searches for bars, restaurants, gas stations, ATMs and many more local points of interest

• Access to the most robust real-time traffic notification on mobile devices, giving users plenty of advance notice to avoid traffic snarls and road work slow downs

• Syncing with Bluetooth in the car or via headset, providing output for music and turn-by-turn navigation audio prompts

• An embedded iPod control, which allows you to listen to music while you are navigating with Gokivo – the music automatically fades (or pauses, if changed in settings) for voice prompts

• The ability to simply “shake” the iPhone to immediately receive alternate route suggestions when encountering things such as traffic congestion

• Find address information directly from any contact in the iPhone and get immediate one-click navigation to the specific address

As any company would be on the day of their launch, we were excited to see the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and BusinessWeek mentions of our product in their stories. Would love to hear what you think as well.

It’s .99 cents to download the app and the full navigation functionality is available for $9.99/month subscription.

- Wall Street Journal - http://bit.ly/cAkQq
- New York Times - http://bit.ly/nbJS
- BusinessWeek - http://bit.ly/13foiv