Now here’s an interesting move. TeleNav, a big name in the GPS space, has just announced that their turn-by-turn GPS service is going to be delivered through HTML5, making it wholly usable in just about any modern mobile browser. In the same fel swoop, TeleNav will be opening up this code to developers, so they can embed maps and directions into their pages for free. Consumers will also enjoy the service for free, which will include voice guidance, rerouting, points of interest information, and live tracking.
This is a pretty impressive shift, and really showcases what HTML5 is capable of doing. Web apps have generally played second fiddle to “real” apps, but developers who don’t want to deal with getting their creations into dozens of different devices and app stores may see HTML5 as a way out. For now, this is only really an option for free apps, but it’s not hard to imagine a future full of premium HTML5 apps; seriously, how big of a hassle would it be to sign in every time you launch? Being free is pretty huge too, but Google has essentially forced that upon every navigation service providers by making their own quality GPS app free for all two years ago.
Developers interested in trying this out can go to www.telenav.com/developer/HTML5.
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