HTC has revealed that its new alternative to Google Maps (and Bing and Yahoo and Ovi and all the other maps, we suppose) HTC Locations has a secret ingredient – TomTom.

TomTom and HTC have announced that the two companies are collaborating on HTC Locations, with TomTom providing its well-regarded map data. Unlike (e.g.) Google Maps, HTC Locations will come with the TomTom data pre-loaded so there should be no waiting for a connection to the internet before you can see where you are.

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TomTom is best known for standalone SatNav devices, of course – a sector that has had a bit of a bruising time since smartphones started to acquire their own navigation features.

HTC Locations will be rolled out with the new Desire HD and Desire Z handsets and will initially only cover Europe and parts of Asia. HTC plans to let other handsets run the app soon – with more map data for other parts of the world – but it is not clear if this means only new phones or if existing Android handsets will be able to get it as a download.

Available soon | £free | HTC

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  • trezquark

    I purchased the Southern Africa Premium Navigation upgrade for HTC Locations only to find out that unlike Garmin or NDrive they have no idea what Southern Africa is. It only contains South Africa. And they do not want to refund.
    As a nav application it is quite good, but support from HTC is I can only rate as -100.

    Please be very sure that the region you purchase covers what is needed as they do not know their geography well.

  • Orev

    It's important to add that this doesn't mean having a sat nav in your HTC phone, not for free anyway. The maps are preloaded but if you are driving and want to use your phone as a sat nav, you'll have to pay for the “turn-by-turn navigation” feature.
    First, you get a 30-day free trial, then you pay. For the last week I've been chasing HTC and TOMTOM to check how much is the charge and how the payment is made, but neither of them have been particularly helpful!

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