So while the dust is by no means settling following Google’s bombshell announcement of their free Google Maps Navigation app for Android 2.0, it’s thinning enough that we can start to survey the landscape again.

In terms of the iPhone, Google is saying they’re working with Apple to add the same or similar navigation features to the iPhone’s built in Maps application that Android 2.0 now enjoys. TechCrunch thinks that, in light of the Google Voice situation, Google should make Apple beg for what they say is best car navigation software, with the richest feature set in the space (or at least the US space, since it’s not international yet). They see it as a replay of when Apple had to beg Microsoft to keep Office on the Mac, with the cloud being the modern “killer app” equivalent of productivity software then.

Apple is in a terrible position here because the future of mobile apps are Web apps, and Google excels at making those. Apple needs Google, it’s most dangerous competitor in the mobile Web market, to keep building apps for the iPhone. Google would be foolish not to since the iPhone still has the largest reach of any modern Web phone. But it will no longer be a priority.

However, Google delivering Google services to Android — Google’s own OS — makes sense. Android got native push Gmail before anyone else (something most handsets still don’t enjoy, GoogleSync being the alternative). Likewise, Google Street View was first shown off on the Android during it’s initial unveiling.

For arguments sake then, let’s say Google does indeed work with Apple to bring Google Maps Navigation to the iPhone Maps app and to all those search-happy, high-value iPhone users’ eyeballs — again, for free — where does that leave existing, premium priced, iPhone turn-by-turn software makers?

Navigon, one of the highest grossing apps in the iTunes App Store, told TiPb:

[Google's] app is not available for the iPhone yet and on Android it’s just launching, so we’ll have to see how professional the navigation experience really is and how well the map material supports navigation functionalities. We have over 18 years of experience in the navigation field which lets us develop unique and high quality features not found on other navigation software and we are using maps that were created specifically for this use case. We provide excellent features such as Text-to-speech, Reality View™ Pro and Traffic Live and are convinced that consumers will pay extra dollars for a better, and more premium navigation experience. Besides, their solution is off-board which means that the navigation is interrupted when there is no cell phone signal available while our iPhone app is on-board and therefore works like a traditional navigation device – you will continue to get directions even without cell phone signal. This is particularly relevant in Europe where you have to pay extra roaming fees when using an off-board solution and traveling from one country to another. In addition, we already have navigation solutions for Android as well as WindowsMobile and Symbian smart phones on the market in Europe and are currently evaluating the options for launching some of these in the US as well – including Android. Our iPhone app is currently the top 3 grossing app in the App Store.

TeleNav, which supplies the service behind the subscription-based iPhone’s AT&T Navigator app, had this to say:

It’s premature to assume that this will have any dramatic impact on the industry. We will see how many phones the service launches on, the content and usability, as well as consumer feedback before we make any assumptions or conclusions about any impact on the industry. We know that people value navigation and are willing to pay for a high-quality, differentiated service.

Certainly there are many industries where people are willing to pay a premium price for premium services. Will navigation software for mobile devices be one of them? Or is paid navigation software about to go the way of paid web browsers?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

What Google Navigation Means for iPhone Maps App, and for Turn-by-Turn Competitors

(AT&T Navigator for iPhone Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

AT&T Navigator [Free with subscription - iTunes link] is the AT&T branded version of Telenav, GPS Turn-By-Turn software provided by AT&T. It is free to download, but requires a $10 monthly subscription paid through your AT&T bill. It also provides maps OTA (over-the-air), downloading any maps and data as needed through the AT&T network. This is both beneficial (takes up less space on the iPhone) and detrimental (can’t use if you have no signal).

In general, the app provided solid directions. For the local stuff, it generally gave the same directions that I have “learned” over time to use. For the long distance route, it gave me a path that someone else had recommended but was different from the Google Maps suggested route. When creating a route, you can either choose a destination to drive to (based on recent locations, address, find a business, airport, etc), or you can search for a POI. Searching for a POI on interest is a little cumbersome. First you choose the category, then the sub category (no problem so far). It then begins the search. The cumbersome issue is if you want to change the search parameters (change from “nearby” to a specific town). Before the search finishes, you need to tap the “where” option, and choose current location, recent places, address, etc. The cumbersome aspect is that the search begins even if you don’t want to search your current area. In addition, you can’t define the current area, so I am not sure if you are searching a 5 mile radius or a 30 mile radius (probably closer to the latter than the former). When searching for a nearby gas station once, I got “no results found” even though I knew there was one 30 miles away. I wanted to know if there was one closer (since I was almost on empty) and the search POI didn’t help at all.

Unfortunately, there is no contact integration for directions. You can cut and paste an address from your contact book, but it will require some additional work on your part. From what I hear, contact integration is going to be included shortly.

As for the routes, I generally had no problem with them. One really nice feature is that it reads the street name, so I don’t need to look at the app to determine what street is my turn. I had some small quibbles about the actual route choices in some cases (in one case, I got off the highway, drove about 20 miles in little back roads at 20 mph, including one dirt road with chickens on it…then got back on the 70mph highway I had just recently left). There are no options to include an interim stop, or to show a preference to avoid (or drive on) a specific road. You can choose the general (fastest, traffic optimized, shortest) for route type, but can also choose to prefer highways or streets. When creating a route, it checks the traffic. This is great for short trips, but I am not sure if it continually checks traffic (which would make more sense for longer trips).

After the route is created, there are great options for an “overview” of your trip. You can get a route summary (turn by turn) or a map summary (showing the whole route). This is great just to look over what you are doing, or if you want to see what the next three turns are going to be (if you like to look ahead, like I do).

One side note with a pet peeve. Why is it that when I get directions for a return route, I don’t simply get my directions in reverse? One would think that is I had the fastest route going one way then the reverse would be the fastest to get back!

The time estimates were generally spot on for short trips, but got more and more off base for longer trips. For my long excursion (630 miles) it had initially predicted 16 or 17 hours, when in reality it took about 11 hours. As I got closer, I found exiting the app and the restarting (and re-routing the directions) increased the accuracy (when I was about 60 miles away, it still said it would take three hours. I exited, started again, and then it said 1.2 hours). Speaking on exiting, because the app is OTA, if you exit you need to re-download the maps. There is no ability to “cache” or save directions once they have been created. In addition, when I exited and went back it, sometimes it would ask me if I wanted to resume the previous trip (still downloading new maps) and sometimes it would simply “forget” that I was in the middle of a trip. Not sure why.

The POI library was very strong (although it still didn’t find the Brownsville Zoo, even when I was 1 mile away!). It had a wide variety of “hits” when searching for any given POI, and this was a solid plus for the app. Even in an out of the area location like Terlingua, TX, it had a reasonable list of hotel accommodations (all three of them) and eating locations. My biggest issue with the POI is that you can’t define a search radius, but this seems to be common on most apps.

All in all this is a solid TBT GPS app. It provides accurate maps and a great library of POIs, and it picked up a GPS signal very quickly. The biggest issues I had were the occasional route choice and what to do if I didn’t have an AT&T signal. Lack of contact integration is a big minus IMO, but it makes up for that slightly by including traffic and reading the street names. If you don’t mind a monthly subscription, and live in an area where you don’t need to worry about an AT&T signal, this app would probably suit your needs perfectly. Four out of five stars.

Pros:

• Solid library of POI’s
• Street names read out loud
• Includes traffic updates
• Great trip overview options

Cons:

• Needs an AT&T signal
• Searching outside of local area can be cumbersome
• No contacts integration

TiPb Review Rating

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: AT&T Navigator for iPhone

Our sibling site, Android Central, has posted up a story about TeleNav making a turn-by-turn GPS navigation app for Google’s Android G1:

The TeleNav software will include full color 3D graphics, speech recognition, one-click rerouting, traffic alerts, weather updates, gas prices, and restaurant reviews.

Sure, it’s not all roses. After a 30-day free trial, you need to fork over $9.99 a month, $99 a year, or $249 for four years to keep the service, but at least they have the option.

So what’s happening with the iPhone app? We asked, and this was what we got in response:

We have to stay mum at this point on an iPhone app other than to say that we’re working on it. Please stay tuned!

If it’s hard to stay mum, imagine how hard it is to “stay tuned” after months and month (and months) of waiting.

Dieter mentions that Apple, flush with success battering around the music industry and Google, may not know how to zip their lip and make nice with the map licensors. Could that be the hold up?

We won’t ask if you want turn-by-turn GPS navigation — we know you do — so we’ll just tell Apple and TeleNav to suck it up and get this done (before more people jailbreak just for xGPS), and we’ll leave the comments open for you to do likewise…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TeleNav Makes Turn-by-Turn Navigation for Android G1 — Where’s the iPhone App?!

TiPb loves answering your emails, but we also love sharing our answers with the community in hopes that more people will benefit, and even better answers will present themselves (hey, that’s why we have them forums!). Today’s question comes from Chris:

“Why doesn’t the iPhone have real GPS?! Even the [redacted] Samsung Instinct has turn by turn! Why does Apple add [redacted] like street view [but] not the things users really want?”

TiPb answers after the break!

We’ve covered iPhone GPS and turn-by-turn navigation quite a bit here at TiPb, especially Dieter who lives out in the middle of somewhere and claims he needs it quite a bit. Why wouldn’t Apple add it indeed? Should be a no-brainer, right?

Well, here’s a few things:

1. Apple doesn’t really supply the GPS middlewhere on the iPhone. They have the chip, of course, and they made the UI (Steve’s even boasted about it on stage!), but the App itself is “powered” by Google Maps. So, the functionality of the App is in some ways limited to the functionality provided by Google. For example, we’re seeing street-view, transit, and walking directions in iPhone 2.2 Beta 2. Why? Because Google has been rolling that out across smartphone platforms, starting with Android. Do any devices have Google-powered tun-by-turn yet? Not to our knowledge. And there may be a reason for that…
2. Licensing conflicts. Google doesn’t own the maps they serve. They license them from Tele Atlas and Navteq. Dieter pointed out a while back that Google’s “API only provides Tele Atlas data, it appears that it’s prohibited from serving Navteq data. As early as ‘05 there has been speculation that there was some sort of license fight between Google and Navteq and both sides decided to take their ball and go home.” This looks like a pretty complicated and potentially deal-breaking deadlock (read the whole article for more). And it’s not the only legal problem…
3. Apple’s iPhone SDK agreement currently prohibits 3rd party turn-by-turn Apps. This could be to avoid the licensing issues mentioned previously, to leave the door open for an “officially licensed” version if Apple and Google can come to an agreement with the licensors (who may not want to see a competitive convergent device like the iPhone get that functionality), or because Apple feels they’ll be sued by the first brainiac who tries to switch between turn-by-turn and SMS and back while driving into a lake.
4. Why can’t TomTom or another dedicated GPS manufacturer release an iPhone App directly, using their own Apps? After all, TomTom has already said they’ve made their system run on the iPhone. The App Store has a reported 2GB size limit, so there’s likely space enough for a robust install. Despite the SDK licensing restrictions, however, would a company like TomTom feel iPhone App sales would make up for the loss of dedicated hardware unit sales they’d face? There have been stories about the dedicated GPS players fearing the iPhone (and other convergence devices) would put them out of business. Let’s remember when Popular Mechanics asked the president of a GPS navigation system manufacturer how he felt about the prospect of a GPS-enabled iPhone, the president said he was: “Scared [expletive]-less“.
5. Could all of the above issues be at play? Apple’s head of iPhone Marketing, Greg “Joz” Joswiak, previously said: “there are some murky “complicated issues” preventing driving directions apps at the moment. ‘It will evolve. I think our developers will amaze us.’ “

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Answers: Why is There No Turn-by-Turn Navigation on the iPhone?