Mobile phone satnavs 'will impact existing designs'

Posted: 2 November 2009

Mobile phones equipped with Google Maps Navigation could impact existing technologies from companies such as TomTom and Garmin, it has been claimed.

Conrad Longmore is the editor of Mobile Gazette and was asked whether the software, which is free to use, will damage the aforementioned firms' equivalent applications.

He said those who want to see what kind of an effect it is having need only look at the share prices of Garmin and TomTom.

"People with long memories might remember what happened to Netscape Corporation after Microsoft started to give Internet Explorer away for free," Mr Longmore explained. "Free is always an attractive proposition to customers."

However, he added that Google is still behind the curve when it comes to interface design.

The comments follow an announcement last week that the search engine is working on Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 devices.

It is set to feature all of the traditional functions found in a satnav, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting.

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