Californian start-up Fullpower Technologies, who has been quite successful with its GPS outdoor and sport iPhone applications (read here) has launched a few days ago its own turn-by-turn navigation software on the iTunes store.

MotionX-GPS Drive is an off-board application based on NAVTEQ map data and deCarta's geospatial platform which also offers Bing Local search (Microsoft) and traffic information, but no text-to-speech to pronounce street names.

Selling at $2.99 for one month, or $24.99 for one year, this application is to date the lowest price point for turn-by-turn navigation on the App Store. In comparison Gokivo (NIM) and AT&T Navigator (TeleNav) cost $9.99 per month and on-board systems (with lifetime license) span from $34.99 (ALK Technologies) to $99 (TomTom).

According to Wall Street Journal tech guru Walt Mossberg, who tested MotionX-GPS Drive prior to its release: “This app worked well in my tests, and is packed with features, including live traffic, a route summary, and integrated music control. It understood my D.C. test address, but it doesn’t announce street names, and its function buttons are very small and labeled with tiny type.” Not a bad review for a first navigation application.

Video demonstration below (source: Fullpower Technologies):