How often do you update your content?! I don't know ANY city in the world that would require updated content more than once in five years (at a minimum). I got my Garmin and it dominates anything else I've seen and/or used (even in Seattle). There were no bugs to update away, no penalties/fees, no contract, and certainly no substription.

My Garmin hit 8000 miles used a month ago and I've used it when I fly all over the country – never once have I needed to update anything. I think I've currently paid $13 a month and in a couple more months the amortized cost will have covered the iPhone's subscription and will only continue to beat it.

Also, Tom Tom is an aweful navigating system compared to a few other companies… I doubt they'll produce a competant iPhone program either. But I'll let you iPhone hoards figure that out on your own.

And if it takes you 6 seconds to miss the point of a hypothetical and 3 seconds to waffle some pointless bile, then you are NOT a very good intellect.

What is your point, Carol?

That all applications are written in three hours, and therefore everyone who wants an update should get it for free?

That anyone who can't write a perfect app first time around, nevermind that they are dealing with technology that changes its capabilities, should give away their work in shame?

You don't have a point, because you don't get the point.

Go back to your PC.

If it takes you 6 mos to write an app… and a full 3 mos of work just to add a few things… and fix a few bugs (that you should have caught long ago)… then you are NOT a very good programmer.

They will all wonder "Gee, why did it fail????"

(Don't they know that 1 year of this foolish service is going to cost me more than just going out and buying a new GPS and using it for free, forever???)

So I'm sorry folks, I agree with the author of this article. It AT&T being greedy as usual.

Hey, AT&T – if you're listening – how about developing a portable antenna that would guarantee a signal and service and NO DROPPED CALLS? That would be something I would actually find pleasure in paying for.

CORRECTIONS:

#1. The app doesn't use in-App subscriptions. It is an AT&T service that sends you an SMS and uses a pin-code to connect the service to your plan's service. The ONLY 3.0 tech being used is turn-by-turn support in the SDK.

#2. The pricing is fine, though perhaps not affordable for everyone. As other commenters have noted, just because uninformed bloggers are "waking up" to services they've previously shunned, doesn't mean companies like AT&T should suddent change the pricing model across ALL devices (or make an exception for iPhone users).

#3. You can start and stop at ANY time. For instance I'm trying the service for a month for $10. So far, it's not feeling worthwhile. Considering Apple's no refund, non-transferable software EULA, I'm happy I'm not paying all upfront.

#4. One idiotic poster compared the service to Google Maps and noted how Maps does turn-by-turn and is "free". Wow. If this is how educated some of your readers are, they really need these articles to be MUCH smarter and well researched. Google isn't allowed to use it's mapping for turn-by-turn. That's why Apple originally banned this function in order to avoid a legal bruhaha. Google has put out the same limits to it's Android users.

I'm sure there is more to criticize but I've got better things to do.

In-App transactions are absolutely crucial for the life of the app store, and here is why:

Imagine you are a developer who makes a great app. A zillion folks buy it for 3 bucks, and love it. Now over the next 12 months you want to improve it, and release version 2.0. This update has five new things which are really cool, and two bug fixes. three of the cool news things took you months to work out and code properly. They took about 50% of the work that the original app itself took.

So you figure the new version 2.0 is worth 4.5 bucks for new users, but only 1.5 bucks to existing users who already forked out for version 1.0.

Cool. Well, without in app transactions, you can;t do this. The app store will only let you issue FREE updates, or sell a new version of the same app.

In other words, you are going to give away your work, or piss off all your existing customers.

That sucks. no?

I mean, it encourages folks to not improve existing apps with new versions, and it also encourages folks to wait and not buy new apps until version 2.0 comes along.

Both these scenarios are bad for developers, bad for Apple, bad for the users and generally bad for freedom, democracy, and small furry animals.

Totally bad, no redeeming features whatsoever.

And hence, criticism of the in app purchases is short sighted, and folks who bang on about it being evil need to be taken out back of barn.

http://www.explainstuff.com

did you really have to say financial retard???? couldn't you have said something else without demeaning people with special needs?

geez, you're not in 7th grade anymore, so why are you still acting like you are?

New pricing models (including subscriptions) give iPhone app developers more incentive to create great apps. As an iPhone owner that can only be a good thing.