Among the bevy of interesting things about Verizon鈥檚 Droid smartphone is Android 2.0鈥檚 new version of Google Maps, which includes full-blown turn-by-turn GPS navigation with spoken instructions鈥揻or free. Judging from the couple of trips around San Francisco it鈥檚 guided me on so far, it would be pretty darn appealing even if it wasn鈥檛 a freebie鈥搕he directions worked, it speaks the names of streets in a crisper voice than AT&T Navigator sports on the iPhone, and I like the way it switches to a Street View photo once you鈥檝e arrived at your destination.
Google says it鈥檚 working on bringing the new version of Maps to other devices. If it does, for-pay navigation applications will have to be radically better to compete, which is bad news indeed for all the companies charging for smartphone navigation apps鈥揳nd probably even worse news for those who sell stand-alone handheld navigation devices. People are already spreading doom and gloom about the future of navigation stalwarts such as TomTom and Garmin.
There鈥檚 at least one form of dedicated navigation hardware that I hope doesn鈥檛 vanish: built-in car systems, which have nice big screens and, in some cases, user interfaces better designed for on-the-go use. And pilots, sailors, and other specialists will still want their customized GPS devices. But if we all get navigation that鈥檚 90 percent as good as the best stuff out there for 0 percent of the price, it鈥檚 hard to see how many folks will justify paying for another gadget鈥揺specially one that may carry a monthly service charge.
