Dash Express Lowered To $299

by Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 6/5/2008

Sunnyvale, Calif. — The price of Dash Navigation’s Dash Express, hailed as the industry’s first two-way, always-on, cellular connected, personal navigation device (PND), has been lowered in limited promotions to $299 at the two key outlets where it is available: Amazon.com and Crutchfield, according to the retailers’ Web sites.

Since its $100 price reduction from $399 earlier this week, the Dash Express is now ranked as the No. 20 best-selling device on Amazon.com; in May it was ranked No. 97.

Dash Navigation confirmed that Amazon.com “is running a special limited-time Father’s Day promotion on a number of GPS devices,” but said that the Dash Express is still $399 on the Dash.net site, according to a spokeswoman.

Crutchfield, however, confirmed that it too is running a limited-time promotion at $299 for the high-tech PND.

Introduced in April, the Dash Express incorporates cellular and Wi-Fi modems. It not only delivers traffic reports but it monitors each of its user's road-speed data as they travel. It reports the road-speed information to other Dash users within minutes, creating local traffic reports even on smaller back roads.

The first-of-its-kind device is being closely watched by PND makers to gauge the market demand for two-way traffic technology.