I'm sure Tomtom is shaking in its shoes with this one. Although I'm sure they shook months ago as it was probably internally known as the Teleatlas split was happening.
I for one am a bit skeptical:
Google's maps used to be good when Tomtom supplied them, but Tomtom banned the use of turn-by-turn in their Google supplier license. So Google silently built their own maps which they are now using for turn-by-turn. The general consensus among early users of the new maps is that they're very pretty, with good accuracy in cities. But their non-urban accuracy pitifully stinks.
Add that to the reality that 4.3" screens are distractingly small, and smartphone GPS screens are just plain dangerous to use for driving.
And do you really want your every move permanently stored in Google's servers?
It will be interesting to see where this ends up. High income types who are willing to pay the $30/month minimum dataplan tax on Android phones, but unwilling to pony up for a first class GPS, will be the most likely audience.
Most of the market is too tech-averse for an Android phone, or too much of a tech-lover to put up with the low-end offering currently out there by Google nav. I think it'll be surprisingly expensive for Google to improve their product to the level offerred by Tomtom, so it'll be interesting to see how this shakes out.
