Corporate Blog

As you may have seen, Google yesterday released a turn-by-turn mobile navigation app, Google Maps Navigator. At this point though, it will only be available on phones that run the Android 2.0 operating system – there’s only one currently on the market – and only as a beta release.

Here at Networks In Motion, we recognize that one of the things that make location-based services so complicated is that they have to work on a number of platforms, devices, and firmware updates. Not only do we recognize this complexity, but to ensure that you will have a great experience, we have invested hundreds of man-years working with handset vendors, data providers, and carrier partners to deliver a consistent service that is bulletproof and tested with the equivalent of decades of refinements. 

We wonder, if this turn-by-turn navigation app is part of the Android 2.0 operating system, then who will do all the porting, testing and integration for each new device, screen, chipset and firmware?  Who will the customer call when the unproven map data is wrong or when the beta service is down or unavailable?

Although Google is fortunate enough to have lots of money to subsidize this free product, bringing one unproven beta release to market does not make up for years of field-testing with millions of users. Your driving experience is important and it’s still unproven if Google’s new map database can work as a mission critical app like real-time car navigation.

One final note that concerns us: Sadly, Google is now attacking the most profitable part of the mobile software developer community. How will the Android operating system attract new developers to the platform when the owner routinely goes after the developers who are pioneers in proven mobile markets like location-based services? Just some food for thought.