theregoesdave

Mobile mapping usage is up 82% year over year since last May. Interestingly enough, this still only represents 7.5% of mobile subscribers or about half of the people on the mobile web. Mark Gardner of Comscore says that, “The mobile phone as a personal navigation device makes tremendous sense,” though, in my humble opinion, the user experience has a long way to go.

Comscore cites the iPhone as a device that is helping to drive this growing trend. In fact, it’s likely also due to the My Location feature in Google Maps for Mobile that determines your location based on nearby cell towers that is also helping to drive adoption. This feature allows people on AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks to use the virtual GPS to more quickly get directions and see their location. The only downside of Google Maps for Mobile is its layout. Instead of simulating a dashboard GPS, it looks a lot like the Google Maps directions on a PC, which jams the screen with too much information to look at while driving. This is compounded by the fact that it doesn’t have voice guided directions like a purebred GPS device.

We’re starting to see other devices converging with the mobile phone in terms of functionality. The iPhone is wildly successful both as a phone and mp3 player. Garmin is working on the release of the Nuvifone which will integrate GPS and phone functionality into one handset. Phones with integrated GPS such as the iPhone 3G and other smartphones will encourage map usage and begin to weave location into functions across the mobile web.

There is a lot of buzz around full GPS applications for mobile phones. Garmin has already released a version of their software for Windows Mobile. There’s a lot of speculation around a similar application for the iPhone 3G, but no one has announced one as of yet. This model allows users to buy the GPS and software rather than paying for a monthly subscription service through their mobile company. Ultimately I think that as GPS becomes more common in phones and the experience gets better, we’ll see these numbers continue to skyrocket.

• Garmin Brings Device-Quality GPS Software to Mobile Phones
• Streetview in Google Maps for Windows Mobile and S60
• Google Opening My Location API to Developers