The Occidental Weekly

What do newspapers, music companies and makers of portable navigation devices like TomTom and Garmin have in common? They all have the same problem: Someone is willing to provide the same service for free.

This situation comes from Google's announcement last week that they are going to include free navigation software in the forthcoming 2.0 version of their Android OS for mobile phones, which is expected to launch across many new phones in the coming months (starting with the Motorola Droid for Verizon).

It's an announcement that's a big win for consumers. GPS makers will have to act quickly to make sure that consumers don't have the expectation that navigation services should be free. However, despite whatever desperate moves they make, it should mean cheaper and wider access to GPS navigation systems for everybody.

With the software included in Android 2.0, a lot of phones are going to have free GPS navigation software, but this by itself isn't the best part for consumers (and the scariest part for companies like Garmin, TomTom and Magellan). It's the potential that Google will shortly bring its software to all the other phone platforms on which Google Maps is already available, such as the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian and others.

If people can get free, spoken, turn-by-turn navigation on their smart phones, there will no longer be the need to dish out the cash needed to buy a dedicated navigation unit (or pay $99 for something like the TomTom software for the iPhone).

Not only that, the Google navigation software actually looks pretty good. In fact, it looks great. Even though it's still in beta, it already incorporates a lot of features that GPS companies charge premiums for, like text-to-speech (reading street names aloud), advising you which lane to be in, real-time traffic and voice control.

It also includes data from Google's satellite imagery and street view. You can see what the streets and terrain around your route actually look like (helpful for when you're dealing with unmarked streets or unusual intersections), and it will show you each of your turns in street view, so you know what the corner or off-ramp will look like before you get there. When you get to your destination, you can compare the street view image to what you're actually seeing to make sure you are in the right place.

There is, however, one major drawback to Google's software. It doesn't store all your maps on the device. Instead, it downloads them as you go. This is fine as long as you have a good signal, but if you drive somewhere in the middle of nowhere without WiFi or a cellular signal, you could find yourself without directions.

Google claims that the device will store the route information already programmed in, which should help if you're driving through areas of intermittent or spotty coverage, but not if you're in an extended area without a cell phone signal.

To be fair, most places have cellular coverage, but most dedicated GPS software has all of the maps and point of interest information on the device's hard drive, so all you need to keep going is a GPS signal. Google's software is a game changer. It's impossible to compete on price when your competition isn't charging anything.

Suddenly, starting now, GPS companies will have to work really hard - and possibly do something drastic - to stay in the game.

Nobody is going to argue that free GPS navigation for everyone is anything but a good thing. But it certainly looks like the standalone GPS unit could go the way of the Palm Pilot, and Google will own yet another market.

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