Soxsider

Of your coworkers, how many were actually going to school?

Stripper myth confirmed! You so smart Chris Rock.

I worked as a Test Engineer for the company who had the highest grossing nav app on the App Store circa 2008 (you guys can figure it out ;) ). When Google Navigation (GN) was released on the Droid, I was asked to do some competitive analysis between GN and our product on an iPhone. While GN was not as accurate, it was free and usable...and that was the just the first installment. Throw in Street View and it was a no brainer. The next day I started looking for a new job. Google Navigation essentially commoditized turn-by-turn navigation, whether on a mobile device or dedicated device, overnight. I am not knocking it as I would never pay for the software/device as a customer. I found it as a welcomed development in the market from a consumer's point of view, but to say it was disruptive to the Location Based Services industry would be an understatement. It is very, very difficult to compete with free.

An iPhone will never come with a FREE, third party nav system at launch like Google did. They sell (even free ones) numerous nav apps already, but will never carry a free Google nav app. Apple has carried a Skype app for years, but wouldn't allow Google Voice? Lines in the sand have been drawn many years ago.

Edit 1: Add Street View reference.

Edit 2: I've qualified what I meant by "Apple will never carry..." Thanks to drummingOctopus for correcting me.

Music time...Can you tell me your top 5 bands theses days?

Approved. Now I get to check out Ours and Graveyard Train. Looking forward to the new QTOSA? I know I am.