Yesterday, Google showed off the new Google Maps application for phones running the Android 2.0 operating system (such as the new Droid phones that Verizon is starting to advertise), and it is mighty impressive. It includes free, built-in navigation services, so you can get turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps without having to buy a GPS unit such as the ones sold by Garmin, TomTom, etc. The application can be controlled by your voice and even incorporates Google's satellite view and street view. This Google video describes seven unique features of the Google maps application on Android:
- Use plain English terms to search instead of an address, so you can simply make your destination a business name or description.
- Search by voice. This looks similar to what you can already do on the iPhone with the Google app that allows you to search Google by saying your search terms.
- Live traffic data so you can see where the roads will be slower and even choose an alternate route to avoid traffic.
- Search along route, to find nearby gas stations, restaurants, etc.
- Satellite view.
- Street view. Street level photographs show you exactly what your next turn will look like and the actual street view of your destination.
- A special car dock mode when the phone is in a car dock.
Engadget also has this nice video from a demonstration that the site was given yesterday. This Macworld report has additional information.
There appear to be a few downsides. For example, you need a network connection to get the maps, so if you are on the open road where there is no cell signal (and no Wi-Fi) you are out of luck. But considering how well the service appears to work when you do have a network connection, and considering the low price of free, it is no surprise that, as reported by the New York Times: "Shares of both TomTom and Garmin plummeted Wednesday after Google’s announcement."Well that's great for all of our Android 2.o-using brethren, but what about us iPhone users? Vic Gundotra, the Vice-President of Engineering at Google who is responsible for mobile phone applications, may have said that the technology is coming to the iPhone, it just depends on which report you read. CNet reporter Tom Krazit says definitively that "Google is working with Apple on bringing it to the iPhone," and the hold up is simply that Google needs to work closely with Apple because Maps is a built-in iPhone application. Similarly, Quentin Hardy writes for Forbes that Google is "'eagerly working' with Apple to provide the app for the popular iPhone."
A report from Reuters, however, gives a less certain spin on what Gundotra said:
Hopefully Google is just honoring Apple's confidentiality requirements and is indeed saying, just without really saying, that Google is working with Apple to bring this to the iPhone.Google Engineering Vice President Vic Gundotra said the company hoped to eventually make versions of the navigation product for non-Android smartphones, but noted that the software has "stringent" hardware requirements.
He would not comment on whether Apple's iPhone, which offers Google mapping software as part of its standard menu of built-in applications, would offer the new navigation features. He said, in response to a question, that the latest version of the iPhone, the iPhone 3GS, has the horsepower to support the navigation product.
Apple may have even more in store for the Maps app. As I reported a few weeks ago, it was recently discovered that Apple purchased a company called Placebase this past July which was a competitor to Google Maps. Placebase specialized in adding layers with helpful information to maps, and if Apple is bringing some of those same ideas to the iPhone, then perhaps we'll soon see have a version of Maps that is even more impressive than what Google is showing off for Android.
I try to stay away from rumors on iPhone J.D., but because this technology is so exciting and because Gundotra's comment provides some degree of confirmation (depending upon which story you read) I thought that this story was worthy of mention here. Whether the improvements come from Google or Placebase or both, I am very excited to see the next version of the Maps app on the iPhone.
