12 replies to this topic

[Brody]

[teaser]Orange shops are to sell Wayfinder Satellite Navigation, on an inital purchase / subscription based model.

Quote

Orange UK and Wayfinder today announced a partnership to turn mobile phones into satellite navigation system at your local Orange shop. Wayfinder drive line the ultimate travel companion provides Bluetooth satellite navigation that connects to a user's phone providing voice guided, turn by turn navigation. Phone Trainers are on hand in Orange shops across the UK to guide consumers through the simple 4-step Wayfinder download process.
Customers can now get satellite navigation on their mobile phone for a pound a week - and benefit from the Wayfinder drive line service which provides users with:

    * Over 750, 000 UK points of interest
    * The most up-to-date information - all UK maps and points of interests updated every two weeks
    * Access to global maps and street level maps in North America and Europe
    * Access to future software updates
    * Voice guided navigation from the phone
    * Options to purchase speed camera location sites and live traffic information

Over 11,000 speed camera locations, including fixed, mobile (including free standing and speed traps), traffic light and temporary cameras are updated daily with a guaranteed 99.9% accuracy of their location. The service is provided to Wayfinder from Cyclops, an authorized supplier of this data who survey all camera sites to confirm their accuracy.

Live Traffic information is provided in association with Trafficmaster enabling users to avoid traffic congestion on UK motorways, and trunk roads.

Wayfinder drive line is now available from Orange shops priced £59.99 Customers are then charged a £1.00 per week subscription fee, exclusive of data costs which comes in addition, since Wayfinder is an offboard navigation system, which means the routes are calculated at a server and send back, via GPRS or UMTS, to the mobile phone. So you better have a data plan in place.

Wayfinder driveline is available now from all 292 Orange stores in the UK.

Do you think this is a viable model? Would you rather pay per week with a lower startup cost or buy TomTom / CoPilot up front?

The advantage of an offboard system is the inclusion of map updates going forward, the disadvantage of course is the data costs (which Orange still expect you to swallow as part of this product).

Let us know what you think!

Source: MSMobileNews

Further Information: Wayfinder[/teaser]

[Edit by Paul, prep for News Page ]

[LSmith4285]

They have been selling this for a while now, think a friend got this about two weeks ago if not more!

They have also just released an update as it doesn't work with the M600 out of the box apparently but this update fixes it, i think its on the Orange world pages.

Edited by LSmith4285, 02 August 2006 - 12:30 PM.

[Brody]

LSmith4285, on Aug 2 2006, 13:19, said:

They have been selling this for a while now, think a friend got this about two weeks ago if not more!

They have also just released an update as it doesn't work with the M600 out of the box apparently.

Shame as it looks quite good, hopefully they'll get it sorted ASAP. Whilst I'm talking about Wayfinder, have you seen this? Its like Google Earth on your Smartphone!

[Confucious]

So £60 + £1/week plus data charges?

I'll stick with CoPilot!

[hotphil]

T-Mobile's offer of free CoPilot with 12 months subscription to the Live service still seems more attractive. Orange really are feeling the need to play catch-up aren't they?

[pd.ryder]

hotphil, on Aug 3 2006, 09:02, said:

T-Mobile's offer of free CoPilot with 12 months subscription to the Live service still seems more attractive. Orange really are feeling the need to play catch-up aren't they?

... and not quite grasping the point of "catch-up". Aren't they actually supposed to catch up?
Once again, I think they missed the point.

[efjay]

There is also the fact that Wayfinder is not as good a GPS solution as the Copilot or TomTom's of the world. There is a thread on my-symbian that pretty much describes all the problems with this software. Anyone  buying should check it out before they part with their cash.

[mobieg]

not a very good pricing model.

[pd.ryder]

Brody, on Aug 2 2006, 13:23, said:

Shame as it looks quite good, hopefully they'll get it sorted ASAP. Whilst I'm talking about Wayfinder, have you seen this? Its like Google Earth on your Smartphone!

I've tried to get Wayfinder Earth to d/l to my C550 but I kept getting an error message telling me my selected language was unsupported (UK Englsh). I've asked their CS people to take a look, but its a bit odd.

[moosemoose]

that's just not clever. it's too little, too late and too expensively.

i'm thinking of a GPS solution for my M600, but i'll probably be going for TomTom....

[pd.ryder]

Apparently, Wayfinder Earth is not compatible with the C550.

[CaptainZok]

Wonder if this will help "O" find the plot that they lost so long ago?

Edited by CaptainZok, 05 August 2006 - 12:55 PM.

[thewitney]

Hi,

I'm upgrading to the SPV M3100 and want to install Sat Nav. Where would you recommend I can purchase a cradle/holder for this phone for my car?

Cheers