The new TomTom app that turns an iPhone into a turn-by-turn GPS navigation system spells the beginning of the end for standalone GPS. Not everywhere, but at least on dashboards, where a smartphone can now do everything a GPS can do and cost less than purchasing both.

Like most users, I have been unhappy with the GPS applications available for my iPhone. While overpriced at $99.95, the TomTom software is the first to truly bring standalone GPS performance to a smartphone platform. When the company releases its car kit, dashboard mounting and powering the iPhone will become easier.

With iPhones selling for as little as $99, the combination of phone, software, and mounting kit should cost less that $300. While you can purchase a nice GPS for that, it would provide little more than navigation and perhaps hands-free for a Bluetooth phone. The iPhone is a real pocket-sized computer that does everything the GPS does, and a lot more besides.

Still, a standalone GPS can–and this may be the genre’s salvation–provide a larger, more readable screen than the iPhone. It can also provide real (not touch screen) buttons for some functions.

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Satnav giant TomTom has officially launched an Application for Apple’s iPhone and will be available for £60 at the popular online store as from today.

Navigon and Copilot have already released their Satnav applications for the iPhone and TomTom’s version – which was first demoed at Apple’s WWDC – costs roughly twice as much although it packs some nice features to justify the price.

Amongst those are the IQ Routes technology which compares your planned journey to a database of “best case scenarios” compiled by TomTom users, automatic re-routing, a safety camera database for a number of European countries, point of interest searching as well as full iPhone optimisation (that includes pinch and zoom in as well as multitouch functionality).
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