Google is out to eat the collective lunch of the iPhone and TomTom teams, it seems. Announced today, Android is going to sport a free GPS navigation system that will revolutionize the platform.
The application is free, and according to @Arrington, even “if Google charged for this app, it would still win hands down. The features include easy search (no need for address), voice search, traffic information (from data sources and crowd sourced from app), and street view close up pictures when you get near your destination. And the car dock mode gives bigger, simpler icons and auto-voice mode.”
Heady stuff from a free application.
At a minimum we are going to see pressure on Apple to do something similar. But, it seems unlikely that they would move so drastically against their developer community. Android on the other hand, just added a major selling point and building block, to the brand and platform. Who wants to buy TomTom for the iPhone when Google Maps Navigation is free?
Sure, Apple may have 100,000 applications, but we have free turn based navigation, and our own app store. That even sounds good. For the cell phone salesman, this is a damned compelling feature to pitch to the budget conscious consumer. Two in one is always better than one in one, golf aside.
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For more technical detail, we recommend that you read the official Google announcement on the product, and check out the video that Google produced for the launch, which we have embedded below.
How serious of a threat do you think that this is to the iPhone?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGXK4jKN_jY[/youtube]
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