I was slightly agog (yes, agog!) the other day when I saw Wills post on the pricing for the iPhone bracket for the iPhone. £100? Oh, come on now!
And hang on…. The App doesn’t even come with the bracket – so let’s now add on the cost of the App, coming in at a weighty £59.99 (that’s just the UK & Ireland, not full Europe maps!). So whats the total cost? Well by commanding the power of maths, I make it the best part of £160!
That is A LOT of money, and even with the supposed features the bracket brings (enhance GPS signal, charging dock function), it’s still way way more expensive than it’s ‘budget’ (in price, not in features) rival, CoPilot Live. But wait, we shouldn’t compare Apples with Oranges, so let’s chuck in a similar kind of bracket, at least one that will charge the iPhone whilst it’s mounted. I recommend the Brodit Active mount by DSL developments (you can see options here). Right, so totalling up, you need:
- CoPilot Live: £25.99
- Brodit Mount for iPhone 3GS: around £50 (depending on what specifically you choose)
- Brodit Proclip (to attach mount to your car specifically): around £16 depending on car
- Total: just about £92
Being completely fair, the Brodit mount doesn’t enhance the GPS on the iPhone, but to be honest I’ve found the CoPilot Live app to be more than capable without any need for boosting it. I also think the Brodit clips look better than the TomTom bracket!
In my mind, the choice is clear – save nearly £70, or don’t. In fact, use that £70 to get a pro-install and hide the cable from the mount to the cigarette lighter, and suddenly you’ve got an install that (1) looks professional, (2) charges your device, and (3) doesn’t make you feel like you’ve overpaid.
(Note: I’m more than happy to hear from TomTom PR to explain why in fact their solution is better, and to write an objective piece comparing the two – a word to the wise though – CoPilot PR already seeded me a free review copy of their software – that’s probably a good start ;-))