Wednesday, March 18. 2009

iPhone Turn by Turn Apps Allowed: But Don't Use Google Data

There were lots of great things in Tuesday's announcement from Google about the new OS, version 3.0 for the iPhone. Per David Pogue the new release due this summer for all platforms (free or small fee) covers all the "chronic" problems.

Those developers interested in putting maps in their apps are in luck. They can now embed maps in applications and access many of the features found in the Google Maps iPhone application.

That's great but one big frustration for users and developers has been the limitation on "turn by turn" directions; until this release they were not allowed. Now, they are, BUT you have to use "your own" data, not Google's. David Pogue puts it this way in a blog post:

Turn-by-turn directions. Programmers can now create GPS programs with turn-by-turn directions—as long as they don’t use Google’s wonderful map information. Thanks to some dumb legal restrictions, they have to supply their own map data.

Since I'm in the industry, I know about "legal restrictions" and the challenges they present. I'm looking forward to how the data providers (fee, free and open) respond to these "dumb legal restrictions." This is a marketing opportunity; let's see which companies turn it to advantage.