Corporate Blog

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.

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

Almost 2 months ago, we launched Gokivo in the Blackberry App World. Since then, we’ve enjoyed seeing the (excuse the boasting for a moment) feedback and high marks we’ve received - 52 reviews and counting, with an average rating of 4 out of 5!

It’s exactly this type of feedback and reinforcement that motivates us come to work each day. With that said, we are interested in all feedback, not just the positive bits. We’re trying our best to make Gokivo as great as it can be – and with your help and feedback, we’ll
get it there.

If you have any opinions or suggestions you want to share with us, shoot us an email at contactus@gokivo.com, or review in the Blackberry App Store. We’re listening.

Gokivo

NIM’s Gokivo was recently announced as the winner of Microsoft’s Mobile Incubation Week. This contest, an American Idol style competition for mobile application developers, was a first-ever and was held on Microsoft’s campus in Silicon Valley. The purpose was to show off top mobile applications and the upcoming Windows Marketplace for mobile available this Fall.

And (in case we didn’t make it clear) we won!

Out of a pool of 50 applicants, they chose six finalists to give a presentation of their app to a panel of judges including reps from CNET and Gizmodo. NIM was announced as the winner via the Twitter feed of Brian Hoskins from Microsoft.

By winning the contest, Gokivo will receive early placement into Windows Marketplace when it is finally released to the general public.