Starting June 17, Apple allowed developers to create turn-by-turn applications and publish them in the App Store. The first app that launched was MobileNavigator Europe from Navigon. We have been keeping a close eye on this type of applications, because they bring some interesting developments in the store:

• Different pricing strategies are applied to monetize this type of apps.
• Turn-by-turn apps have a substantial influence on the total price of the most popular apps.
• There is heavy competition, especially in the US right now.
• Some of the big navigation players worldwide are launching an iPhone app soon.

Today, Navigon released its full app for the US market. MobileNavigator North America is available for a one-off fee of $69.99. This price will be raised to $99.99 in a few weeks. Within a day, the app is ranked number 2 in the Navigation category and moved into the overall top 100.

Navigon’s MobileNavigator Europe is ranked in the overall top 100 in most European countries, despite its price-tag of $139.99. In 12 European countries it was ranked as the number 1 most popular paid application in the complete App Store.

Will the US version of MobileNavigator be just as popular as their European version? And what will happen when the price is raised after the introduction offer? We’ll see in the next weeks.

Vincent Hoogsteder

Tags: mobilenavigator, navigon, TomTom, turn by turn

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 11:46 am by Vincent Hoogsteder and is filed under Apple App Store. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.