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Internet giant Google unveiled a free navigation system for mobile phones Wednesday in a move seen as a potential challenge to the makers of standalone GPS navigation devices.
US telecom carrier Verizon Wireless and US handset maker Motorola announced simultaneously that a smartphone going on sale in the United States next week, the Droid, would be the first to feature Google Maps Navigation.
The Droid, which will cost 200 dollars and is being touted as a challenger to Apple's iPhone and the Blackberry from Research in Motion, is powered by Android 2.0 software, Google's next-generation mobile phone operating system.
Google Maps Navigation, which will only work on smartphones running Android 2.0, includes many of the features of a traditional GPS device such as 3D map views and turn-by-turn voice guidance.
Google's Internet-connected system allows navigation using voice search in English, provides live traffic updates, includes satellite imagery from Google Maps and features "street view" -- real ground-level pictures of destinations.
Google Maps Navigation also allows users to conduct a search along their route for gas stations or restaurants, for example.
Industry analysts said the free Google feature could pose a threat to the personal navigation devices for drivers made by companies such as Garmin of the United States and TomTom of the Netherlands.
"Global positioning devices were already on the road to becoming irrelevant and Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 may speed up the trip," wrote Larry Dignan, editor-in-chief of technology blog ZDNet.
Analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon Valley's Enderle Group said he did not expect it to happen overnight, however.
"Most folks tend to be much more comfortable with the standalone devices at the moment," Enderle told AFP. "I think primarily because the phones don't lend themselves yet to in-car navigation.
"The displays are too small and have a tendency to wash out," he said. "The in-car experience just isn't good enough to get rid of what is now a relatively inexpensive device."
Shares in Garmin plunged by 16.23 percent in New York, however, to 31.65 dollars while TomTom was down 20 percent in Amsterdam.
Verizon and Motorola said the Droid, which features a touchscreen, a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, a five-megapixel camera and DVD-quality video capture and playback, will go on sale in the United States on November 6.
Verizon is the latest US telecom carrier or manufacturer to adopt Android software in a bid to mount a challenge to the market-leading Blackberry and iPhone.
Motorola released another Android-powered device, the Cliq, in September and is pinning hopes of a turnaround in its flagging fortunes on smartphones using Google's operating system.
Android is already being used to power smartphones from T-Mobile and US wireless carrier Sprint Nextel and Taiwan's HTC are also releasing a mobile phone powered by Android, the HTC Hero.
The Wall Street Journal reported this month that US computer maker Dell is teaming with telecom colossus AT&T, the exclusive US carrier for the iPhone, to launch an Android-based smartphone next year.
Industry tracker Gartner said this week that smartphones, which currently account for 14 per cent of overall mobile device sales, will make up around 37 per cent of global handset sales by 2012.
Citing Gartner figures, Computerworld reported recently that Android-based smartphones will capture 18 percent of the global market by 2012 compared with a mere two percent today.
