• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 17, 2009

A new app promises to turn your iPhone into a GPS device but it will cost you $99.99--just $99 more than the typical paid iPhone app. (And the amount as the iPhone 3G.) The new program from TomTom the same features found in its portable navigation device including turn-by-turn voice directions and Tele Atlas maps of the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

The app relies on the company's IQ Routes technology, which bases travel directions on the actual experience of TomTom drivers to calculate the most efficient routes and accurate arrival times. It claims to reduce travel time up to 35% of the time.

Even at $100, the TomTom app is still cheaper (over the course of a year) than AT&T's Navigator GPS app, for which the carrier charges wireless subscribers a $9.99 monthly fee. GPS device, e-reader, game player, TV, phone-what other devices will the iPhone and other smartphones end up substituting for via apps?