Route 66 Mobile Britain review

[MikeB]

Way back in January I reviewed the first full navigation system for mobile phones Wayfinder. At the time I wrote:

"All in all I think that 2004 will be the year of mobile technologies. Wayfinder is the first of a new breed which will broaden the use and functionality of portable navigation systems."

I think I have been proven to be correct. A whole raft of GPS enabled applications is hitting the market now. With the mobile phone market being much larger than the PDA market there is a massive opportunity for the company that gets it right.

Route 66 is a well known producer of navigational products, first on the PC, then on PDAs and now it is the first company to offer a complete on-board mobile phone navigation system.

Known as Mobile Britain 2005 this was first launched in the UK with maps of UK and Ireland, and later a second product Mobile Athens was released to coincide with the Olympic Games.

So how does their Mobile phone software package measure up? Click here to read the full review.
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Mike Barrett

[PeterB]

Hello Mike,

Thanks for an excellent report.

I have been using Route 66 Mobile on a Nokia 6600 for more than 3 months and it is now my 'PREFFERED' in car nav system.

I bought software only, on a MMC card, and use it with an old Emtac receiver. Because of the Nokia's single BT connection I also use 'Mr Handsfree together with the Mr Handsfree magnetic mount, very neat.

The Route 66 customer response is excellent and, following a recent price reduction, they provided me with a version for France, completely FOC.

The 'free' traffic information is a clear bonus. Very useful prior to making a journey BUT can lead to some unnecessary diversions. I understand that Route 66 are considering a software modification where the user will be offered a choice, 'diversion or not' with info on the particular 'blockage' in question.

I now believe that the mobile phone platform offers a realistic alternative to PDA based in car GPS navigation

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