Thursday 19 November 2009

Google Offers Free Satellite Navigation On Android Phones

Google has announced a free satellite navigation application and free music search in smartphones that operates through Google’s Android operating system. It will be initially available in US, on Motorola Droid phone, which employs Google’s Android 2.0 software. This new navigation system will add real time directions, Google street view photos, voice technology and real-time traffic data.  Unlike TomTom and Garmin GPS Satellite Navigation, Google Maps Navigation Application Google Maps Navigation uses your phone's internet connection to give you the latest maps and business data.

Extract from news.CNET
The application works like any navigation system that you may have used, but it combines Google Search and Google Maps functions that are normally only available on the desktop and brings them to the smartphone. Perhaps the most interesting and useful feature comes from Google Street View, allowing Google to provide a Street View image at every turn that the application suggests during your journey.


As with other navigation applications, users can search for gas stations or restaurants along the way, and get real-time traffic information. Google also developed a unique "arms-length" user interface that automatically pops up when the software detects that it has been placed into a dashboard holder, with bigger buttons and links to voice controls front and center.

Obviously, Google is not the first to offer a combination of turn-by-turn maps and Web services. Many different smartphone applications provide this type of navigation service, and companies like Garmin and TomTom are also working to embed Web-delivered data into their on-dash and built-in navigation systems.

But the price for Google Maps Navigation--free--will be tough to beat. Expect to see ads pop up at a later date, although they won't be present at launch.

Google doesn't plan to open-source the application but does plan to make it free on Android 2.0 phones, and implied that the application would be free for other partners as they cut deals to use the application. That could dramatically reduce the cost of developing navigation services, undercutting the established industry with a product that consumers already know very well: there are 50 million active users of Google Mobile Maps, Gundotra said.

Google is not sure whether Google Maps Navigation will work on older Android phones that will get upgraded to Android 2.0. That depends on the carrier and phone maker, Gundotra said.

Regular topic and content updates are available here or shown now in full over at What are Vehicle Telematics and Vehicle Tracking? on the UK Telematics Online website.

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