TomTom car kit briefly appears in Apple’s online store, but not yet shipping

iLounge is reporting that the long-awaited TomTom car kit for the iPhone has finally shown up on the online Apple store, although the page is now currently offline. The hardware unit alone sells for $119.95, and the app is an additional $50-$100 depending upon where you’re located. The cradle was made to enhance the TomTom GPS app, which has been available in the App Store since July of this year.

The car kit provides secure docking and enhanced GPS performance with its own built-in GPS receiver (as the iPhone’s is not always so accurate, in my own personal experience) and will even charge your iPhone and allow you hands-free calling. As if all of that isn’t enough, the unit also includes an audio out connector so you can play your music through your car’s audio system. However, the cable that enables this feature is not included with the car kit.

The TomTom iPhone GPS solution has been criticized for being too expensive because the car kit in conjunction with the App Store app will cost a user more than $200. One could easily buy a standalone GPS device for less than that price, although you will have more hardware to carry and will probably not have as many features as with the TomTom hardware and software. The TomTom app is currently also behind the best-seller Navigon app, which includes a text-to-speech feature and has received generally better reviews than the TomTom app.

According to the online Apple store, the TomTom car kit is not yet available, and there is no time estimate of a ship date. As of the writing of this article, the TomTom Apple store page has been taken offline.