Is $99 too expensive for the Apple App Store?

For a mere $99 you can transform your iPhone into an in-car navigation device. But is this app too expensive for the App Store?

TomTom for the iPhone sounds too me like a brilliant app. In fact, there are features of the app that I really like the sound of, such as being able to flip between landscape and portrait. I'm already a big TomTom fan and have traveled thousands of miles with my trusty TomTom GO 920 to keep me company. If TomTom for the iPhone is of the same caliber as other TomTom gear I've handled, it'll be a robust, solid bit of kit.

But is $99 too expensive for the App Store? After all, the App Store feels like a race to the bottom in terms of quality and price. I've bought a few apps for my iPod touch, and while I've been pleased with some (Twitterific and Bejeweled 2 spring to mind), but to find this small nuggets of gold you have to sift through a lot of ... um ... dirt. It feels to me that premium apps like TomTom for the iPhone are going to get buried among crappy games and fart machines. There's no tiering within the App Store and this means that it's basically a wild west. No, let me change that, the App Store is just one big hole in the ground where all the apps are thrown on top of each other. Sorting through the mess is left up to the end user.

It'll be interesting to see how well TomTom for the iPhone sells. It'll also be interesting to see what the reviews are like. As a rule high-priced items have attracted negative reviews based on nothing more than price. Yes, everyone would love to pick up quality apps for nothing, but I doubt that these same people go to work on a Monday morning, summon the boss and tell him or her that they are willing to work for free. I wonder if they write reviews after buying their iPods of iPhones, complaining that they weren't free?

I'll be keeping an eye on how the Apple/TomTom relationship works out. I'm especially curious to find out whether the App Store scales up be a viable outlet for apps that have a $100 price tag.