It’s the hottest thing to come along in the tech world since blogging: The app store. And soon you might just have an app store for every gadget in your arsenal.
TomTom is the latest gizmo maker to get in on the app-tion, saying this week that it is now planning to launch an app store specifically designed for its Go Live GPS navigation hardware. The idea: Allow drivers to upgrade the old "drop in an address and tell me where to go" functionality of their GPS units.
The catch with GPS devices, of course, is that you don’t really want people playing games or otherwise mucking about with these units while they’re behind the wheel. TomTom acknowledges that broad GPS apps may be “impractical”; others might say these kinds of applications could be downright dangerous.
So what might the contents of a GPS app store look like, really? Enhanced point-of-interest apps immediately come to mind — think restaurant reviews (“take me to the nearest four-star restaurant”) and real-time gas-price applications. Traffic-planning apps would be a must, and geocachers would certainly love an app that integrates cache locations and contents directly with a GPS unit. I can even imagine a few augmented reality-style games designed for the devices. The possibilities aren’t exactly endless, but there’s more to this idea than there seems to be at first blush.
TomTom hasn’t announced a time frame for the app store’s launch, but it’s speculated it will arrive before the end of the year. Information on typical application pricing is obviously still a ways out as well.
Will apps reinvigorate interest in the stumbling stand-alone GPS market? Apps alone won’t make people put down their iPhones and Nexus Ones, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. North-north-westerly, perhaps.
Yahoo
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