The link between online mapping services and global positioning devices is growing stronger.
Starting Tuesday, people using Google Maps to plan trips will be able to send location data to their Garmin GPS systems, the companies announced on Monday. The feature, called "Send-to-Garmin", will eliminate the need to re-key route information into GPS devices.
Garmin's Nuvi 5000 mobile GPS.
(Credit: Garmin)
Likewise, Garmin has inked a deal with Mapquest to send mapping information from that online service to Garmin's GPS products. The service is expected to launch in April. Mapquest already lets people send mapping information to mobile phones.
Roughly one year ago, Garmin and Mapquest launched application programming interfaces intended to encourage developers to write applications linking GPS systems to online services.
Garmin has a really small idea for making smart phones a whole lot smarter.
The GPS device maker announced Wednesday GPS software called Garmin Mobile XT. Embedded on a microSD card, the software gives the handset access to a slew of location-based services, such as maps, driving directions, real-time traffic and weather information, local gas prices and friend-finding tools.
The card is $99, a steal compared with the average Garmin device, which will run you anywhere from $200 to $1,000. And, of course, you don't need to ferry around a separate navigation device.
Mobile XT comes loaded with maps of the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico or Europe. It takes advantage of phones connected to the Web by routing to the location of a contact in the phone's address book or to a calendar appointment and can broadcast your location to any other phone or pinpoint the whereabouts of other Garmin Mobile XT users.
All of this map data is provided by Navteq, which was enticed into joining Nokia's ranks Monday in exchange for $8.1 billion. The acquisition by Nokia demonstrates the appeal and strategic importance of offering location-based services. What Garmin is trying to do by offering the Mobile XT hardware/software combination is along the lines of what Nokia is aspiring to do--namely, incorporate the convenience of navigation services into a single device that most everyone carries.
Though both are hardware makers that depend on software to make this happen, they are coming from opposite sides: Nokia is the world's No. 1 producer of cell phones, and Garmin is a stalwart of the personal-navigation industry. Though GPS devices won't fade away completely, Nokia's position in the handset business and control of Navteq give it an obvious advantage in this competition for consumers.
Garmin and MapQuest want others to share the geospatial wealth.
Garmin's GPSmap 60Cx
(Credit: Garmin)In conjunction with the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, Calif., both companies on Tuesday announced moves to share application programming interfaces (APIs) that let programmers take advantage of their products. For years, products or service APIs were often kept secret, but nowadays it's vogue for companies to share them in an attempt to become a vital part of a larger ecosystem.
Garmin, which makes GPS (Global Positioning System) devices that tell people where they are, announced a number of free and licensed APIs that permit sophisticated interactions between Web sites and GPS devices. For example, a hiker can upload GPS data to a Web site to plot travels on a map, or a geocaching enthusiast can download locations to scout out. Those and other interfaces are at a new developer-oriented Garmin Web site.
Meanwhile, MapQuest released a beta version of an API to let programs written in Adobe ActionScript take advantage of MapQuest's online mapping. The widely used Flash technology, as well as its new Apollo technology, both use ActionScript, as does Adobe's Flex software for developing Flash software.
To show what the software can do, MapQuest posted some demonstrations on its Web site.
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