GPS Players Aim to Navigate the Mobile Market

Even though Apple has yet to show off turn-by-turn directions on the GPS-enabled iPhone, navigation is one of the fastest-growing categories of mobile devices apps. As comScore recently noted, map use on cell phones in the U.S. during the three-month period ended May 31 was up 82 percent over the same period last year. The demand is particularly high for step-by-step pedestrian navigation. GPS makers are responding by getting their services onto phones or, in some, cases, making phones around their services. TomTom, based out of the Netherlands, deployed its Navigator 6 software at the end of 2006 on a wide array of handsets including models from Nokia, HP and Palm and included a Bluetooth GPS receiver to allow phones with no GPS chip to use the service. Intrepid TomTom-ers say they’ve even gotten it to connect to their... [read full story]