TeleNav Takes a Shot at the Connected GPS PND Market

The concept of connected GPS personal navigation devices is quite an interesting one and should have really taken off...if it wasn't for the world economic crisis. The most important developers of such products (Dash and Magellan, just to name a few) have either postponed or canceled their products altogether, but it would seem that a company, TeleNav, is willing to risk when others are not, since it has just introduced the Shotgun model, a two-way, Internet-connected GPS personal navigation device.

Probably the most important feature provided by this otherwise plain-looking 4.3-inch PND is the TeleNav Connected ServiceSM, which allows the device to monitor the traffic conditions along the drivers’ routes and search for congestion or incidents, which are then reported to the driver, along with an automatic re-routing option. Furthermore, the TeleNav Shotgun even displays an updated estimated time of arrival (ETA) based on traffic, speed and distance.

Additionally, this service also keeps content (maps and local search data) up-to-date, which means that drivers won't have to constantly download new maps, and the company's providing a very large number of POIs as well – up to 11 million of them. Plus, users can very simply add a new POI to their PND, either directly on the device or when browsing the web on their computer, via a special TeleNav plug-in for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google toolbars.

Now, we've taken a short peek at what this thing can do, so it's time to talk about just how much it will cost. The device itself will set you back around 300 US dollars, but you'll also have to get a subscription for the GPRS service, and it's not exactly a very affordable one. Thus, for 2 years, you'll have to pay around 240 US dollars (roughly 10 bucks per month), for 1 year around $129, while a month-to-month subscription will cost around 12 dollars per month.

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