The Mercury News:
Google is set to launch a free service for smartphones that will combine GPS navigation, voice-activated search and real-time traffic updates.
Other telecommunication companies already offer turn-by-turn navigation systems that talk drivers through a route and run on smart phones, although many are not free, and would not offer the same connectivity to Google’s massive store of data.
There is currently no handset on the market that runs Google’s Android 2.0 operating system, required by the new application, although Google clearly expects one to be released soon, perhaps today. Google said it is “eagerly working” with Apple to bring “Google Maps Navigation” to the iPhone.
I’m eager. As it is now I use GPS for routing; the iPhone Google Maps App for traffic. Integrating GPS navigation is terrific. And there’s this:
As a driver approaches a destination, the display would switch to Google’s “Street View” technology, so users could recognize their destination.
With that, I won’t be buying a new GPS. The NYTimes emphasizes this potentially disruptive impact:
In a move that is likely to be seen as an attack on yet another industry, Google on Wednesday introduced a free navigation system for mobile phones that offers turn-by-turn directions.
Analysts said that Google’s free service, if successful, could erode the sales of GPS navigation devices made by companies like Garmin and TomTom and of navigation services offered by cellphone carriers.
“There’s no doubt that those guys are going to be disrupted,” said Greg Sterling, an analyst with Opus Research.
But during a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said he didn’t think of the new service as disrupting an industry. Instead, he said it is a windfall for consumers that was made possible by the increasing power of smartphones and the growing ubiquity of Internet access.
So right now it’s announced, but it runs on no phone. Let’s update the Droid rumors. It was expected as early as Friday. Endgadget says that’s off by a week:
We knew good and well this thing was coming sometime in November, and now Verizon Wireless has made it official: the Motorola DROID will hit Big Red on November 6th for $199 on contract (after a $100 mail-in rebate). Naturally, the DROID itself is just the first of what could be many Android-laced phones coming to the carrier, and Verizon Wireless CMO John Stratton even stated that the phone “is wide open” — pretty big words from a company like VZW. Android 2.0 will be front and center, along with Visual Voicemail, a 3.7-inch display (854 x 480 resolution), 5 megapixel camera (with dual-LED flash), a bundled 16GB memory card and a beta version of Google Maps Navigation(!).
Techmeme has more discussion about Google redefining GPS.
RELATED: Google’s Eric Schmidt was interviewed last week on the future of the internet in front of thousands of CIOs and IT Directors at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009. My selected highlights:
- Within five years there will be broadband well above 100MB in performance – and distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away.
- The internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.
- “We’re starting to make signifigant money off of Youtube”, content will move towards more video.
- “We can index real-time info now – but how do we rank it?”
- It’s because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources. Learning how to rank that “is the great challenge of the age.” Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem.