Google announced this week that they will be rolling out GPS-functionality (like the ones that Garmin & Tom-Tom have) out to their Android Phones. They will also be coming out with hardware that will allow you to easily prop the handset onto your dash, so it can function as a traditional Car-based GPS unit when you’re not talking on the phone (I’m assuming eventually netbooks will also be able to do this). What amazes me is not that Google was able to do this and is approaching the market by offering essentially “free” GPS service, but that the traditional businesses (Garmin & Tom Tom) didn’t have the guts in previous years to establish Google as a channel partner. They were likely too enamored with their $79/year Map updates that they sell to current customers. I have a Garmin and love it’s quality, but wondered to myself why they could not just put bluetooth in their units and enable gps units to data link to a cell phone (with a data plan). This would have allowed Garmin to offer google maps as a feature (maybe a $ service?) - and not this year – they could have done this in 2006. If they did, then this would be old news:
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