Today, Tele Atlas (TA) is releasing a new version of MultiNav, the street network database from the company that is optimized for navigation products and solutions. So, to be clear, though it is not technically a subset of MultiNet, the complete Tele Atlas road network database, MulitNav contains only certain features most applicable for navigation applications. I spoke with Purvi Rajani, Global Product Director for MultiNav, Ms. Rajani said, “The product is analogous to moving from DOS to Windows for us; it’s a massive move forward for Tele Atlas.” She offered several key points to consider in this new release:

I've steadfastly delayed comment on the addition of a GPS chipset (Broadcom chip according to Seeking Alpha) to the iPhone because I said a year ago they blew it when the iPhone 1.0 launched without it. So, now we have the iPhone 2.0 with GPS. Sounds like Apple is working from the Microsoft playbook: Launch a less than full featured product at a high price; wait for customer complaints, drop the price and re-launch a second version with better features. I guess Steve Jobs is now a student of Bill Gates. This is news?

So in a year's time what do we know? While Apple still holds only about 5% of the overall smartphone market according to InformationWeek it has picked up share on a quarterly basis since its launch according to CNNMoney. It won't replace your Blackberry which already had GPS capabilities. Why switch? Are you looking for the "coolness" factor or is it that you really like AT&T's cell coverage and speed (that's supposed to be a joke).

Maybe I'm just not a "Mac guy." I can't get excited about this particular news because the market has moved well beyond just GPS as a feature. We are now talking about what we can do with it and more LBS services have already been announced and launched by other phone providers that makes the iPhone news anticlimactic. This is not to say that the iPhone is not disruptive technology. I think it is. But the addition of GPS would have been in keeping with Apple's "coolness factor" to facilitate social networking and other location aware services at its 1.0 launch...not a year later.

What's next? An iPhone icon showing you where the closest Apple store is located? I guess you'll need GPS for that!