by Mitch Wagner

The iPhone this week got a new entry in the fast-moving category of GPS software: MotionX-GPS Drive is by far the least expensive of the half-dozen alternatives, with a “holy cow!” low price of $2.99, with an annual subscription of $25. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper than any of the alternatives.

A half-dozen vendors, including TomTom and AT&T, have come out with iPhone nav apps. These are relatively big-ticket purchases; the subscription-based AT&T app is $10 per month. Other apps have one-time purchase prices ranging from $35 for CoPilot NA to $100 for the TomTom app.

Like the AT&T app, the MotionX-GPS Drive (iTunes store link) is a networked app, it doesn’t store maps on the device. That has several advantages, chief among them that all the map information and points of interest are up-to-date. If a street recently got made one-way, or a new restaurant opened nearby, the MotionX-GPS is more likely to know about it faster than an app that stores its data on the iPhone.

Also, the MotionX app is likely to be much faster and more responsive than competitors that store their data on the device; I have used the others and they’re all slow, as they access enormous maps.

Likewise, the MotionX app will take up less space on your device; the competitors take up around 1.5 gigabytes, and require twice that to install, the MotionX app requires just a few megabytes.

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Fullpower Technologies, the global leader for mobile sensing solutions, today launched MotionX-GPS Drive for North America on the iPhone. This is the first door-to-door navigation application developed specifically for iPhone users.

MotionX: Next Generation Driving and Pedestrian Navigation
MotionX-GPS Drive turns any iPhone 3G or 3GS into the next generation car and pedestrian navigation solution. MotionX introduces new features not yet seen on mobile devices, including “door-to-door” personal navigation tools, user interface innovations that greatly simplify the navigation experience, and integration of live search capabilities.

Drawing from the feedback of over 2 million iPhone MotionX-GPS users, MotionX has built a complete navigation solution specifically for the iPhone. This is not a quick port of an ancient application. MotionX-GPS Drive is state-of-the-art with a state-of-the-art business model, which means users get a better solution at a fraction of the cost.

Fullpower developed MotionX-GPS Drive because customers asked for it. There are more than 2 million iPhone MotionX-GPS customers who love the outdoors, are typically 16 to 43 years old, very active, into sports and love their iPhones. These users also need to find places and get there door-to-door. MotionX asked them what they wanted and then started with a clean slate.

The result is MotionX-GPS Drive: only for the iPhone, designed with active, younger iPhone users in mind. It’s different, better, more focused: It’s not a port of an ancient relic developed on 20 other “feature phones” for carriers. What this means for every iPhone user is that MotionX-GPS Drive is a better solution.

“Today MotionX shows the future of car and pedestrian navigation on the iPhone,” said Philippe Kahn, CEO of Fullpower. “We are fully committed to continually innovating and radically improving the navigation experience. The iPhone is the perfect platform to invent the future of navigation.”

MotionX-GPS Drive has an introductory price of $2.99 and covers the U.S. and Canada.

MotionX: Everything is Live and Dynamic

Everything about MotionX-GPS Drive is dynamic including search, maps and routing. This fully-live, always up-to-date, connected experience is unparalleled, leveraging the full power of the Internet and the iPhone. MotionX-GPS Drive is designed and optimized for the iPhone, and provides a user interface for iPod music and for the iPhone 3GS compass. MotionX-GPS Drive turns any iPhone 3G or 3GS into the next generation vehicle and pedestrian navigation solution.

MotionX live connected solution vs. on-board competitors — with the MotionX-GPS Drive solution, users benefit from a fully-live, always-up-to-date, connected experience for navigation. Search, maps, routing, points of interest (POIs), and relevant destination information, such as phone numbers, are delivered to the user — all current, real-time and up-to-date. This is a significant advantage over on-board solutions, such as those available from providers TomTom and Navigon, which require users to download and pre-install map data with tedious data loads that are in excess of a gigabyte. Off-board navigation data is static, and hence, becomes outdated the moment it is loaded onto the user’s device.

MotionX: The Best at a Fraction of the Cost

About Fullpower/MotionX

Founded in 2003 by Sonia Lee and Philippe Kahn, Fullpower’s mission is to put motion-sensing in every mobile device. As the leader in mobile sensing solutions, Fullpower is building on its expertise in wireless sensor technology to deliver unique, interactive motion-sensing applications. MotionX solutions are designed and developed in Santa Cruz, Calif.

by Walter S. Mossberg

MotionX-GPS Drive: Of all the apps, this one looks and works most like a typical iPhone app, and least like a navigation program ported from another device. Its main screen has a clever menu arranged in a circle. It’s also fairly small—just 10 megabytes or so. But it must download maps and other info each time you start a route. This also allows it to update the information on the fly. Drive also is potentially the cheapest of the four apps I tested. It will cost $2.99 and included is 30-days of Live Voice Guidance. After that, it’s $25 a year.

This app worked well in my tests, and is packed with features, including live traffic, a route summary, and integrated music control. It understood my D.C. test address, but it doesn’t announce street names, and its function buttons are very small and labeled with tiny type.

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