Israeli navigation provider Locationet is relaunching this month amAze, its off-board navigation solution for mobile phones. Instead of a bare bone, free version, Locationet made the choice to charge a low fee and provide additional services. amAze 5.0 comes at €2.99 for one month and €26.99 for one year. There is also a subscription for €2.49 per month. The application remains funded by advertising and the first month is offered for free.

“The request from our users was to bring value added services, but these services are too expensive for keeping the solution free. After a lot of thinking we decided to charge a low fee and add real time traffic and speed trap information. Existing customers can still continue to use amAze 4.5 for free which is still available for download. In addition to thesenew real time services, version 5 has a new user interface and many improvements,” said Ofer Tziperman, CEO at Locationet.

“The solution is available immediately for Java, Android and Blackberry. Windows Mobile and iPhone versions are coming shortly thereafter. We have already submitted our App to Apple, so at this stage we are just waiting for their approval,” he said. “We are going to gradually launch in all app stores,” he added.

3 million downloads
amAze was initially launched in 2007 and got a lot of buzz at that time because it was free to use compared to €10 per month charged by most wireless operators in Western Europe at that time. “We got over 3 million downloads and we currently enjoy a few hundred thousand unique users every month,” said Tziperman.

For this launch Locationet set up a deal with NAVTEQ which will be also a partner to display location-based advertising on amAze. As a consequence, amAze will work wherever NAVTEQ has map data, meaning 78 countries.

Once available on various app stores, and particularly iTunes, Locationet will clearly drive down the price of navigation. “Ultimately our goal is to offer it for free,” said Tziperman. “If we can generate enough revenue from advertising we will bring it back to free.”

UPDATE: amAze has just been released on the iTunes application store