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TomTom navigation app for Android coming October 2012

Three years after the launch of its navigation app for iPhone, TomTom announces that it's nearly done with an app for Android phones.

Antuan Goodwin Reviews Editor / Cars
Antuan Goodwin gained his automotive knowledge the old fashioned way, by turning wrenches in a driveway and picking up speeding tickets. From drivetrain tech and electrification to car audio installs and cabin tech, if it's on wheels, Antuan is knowledgeable.
Expertise Reviewing cars and car technology since 2008 focusing on electrification, driver assistance and infotainment Credentials
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Antuan Goodwin
2 min read
TomTom

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TomTom

No longer will Android users have to watch longingly from the sidelines while iOS users get all of the navigation app love from GPS app and hardware provider TomTom. TomTom has announced that it is putting the finishing touches on an Android version of its turn-by-turn navigation app at IFA 2012 in Berlin with a projected launch window of October 2012. (That's just over a month from today, so technically those users will have to watch just a bit longer.)

Not that Android users have been left without turn-by-turn options while TomTom has been hard at work on its Android app. The Google Play Store is already rife with great online and offline navigation options for Android phones and tablets, not the least of which is Google's own Google Maps Navigation app, which received an update today. So, TomTom is facing a bit of an uphill battle. Still, more options are always better and I'm looking forward to seeing what TomTom has to offer in October.

In order to do battle with the aforementioned plethora of established Android navigation apps, TomTom brings to the table offline navigation with locally stored map data and lifetime updates for those maps, its IQ Routes pathfinding algorithms, which use current and historical traffic data to calculate routes and arrival times for each trip, and advanced lane guidance that shows what highway lanes are valid for the current route. Users will also have the option to upgrade to TomTom's HD Traffic service and Speed Cameras database as in-app purchases.

No word has been given on pricing, but the TomTom USA app for iOS goes for $49.99, so I expect the Android version's price will be somewhere in that neighborhood.