Turn-by-turn directions service provider Telenav announced this morning the availability of a new offering called Scout for Apps, which makes it easy for developers of any native mobile or web app to add turn-by-turn spoken word directions in HTML5. The offering is free and ad supported, with ad-free licensing available.
Turn-by-turn on mobile phones isn’t rare anymore, but a turn-key way to add it in to any app raises some interesting possibilities. Once so expensive, it’s not hard to imagine turn-by-turn becoming commoditized. For wireless infrastructure providers, the commoditization of navigation may be one of the few stories in the app world where the rapidly falling value of this type of app leads to a disproportionate growth in value for providers of connectivity, as consumption of data during navigation grows.
The Yellow Pages app from Avantar will be among the first to incorporate the Scout for Apps service, enabling users to not just look up business listings but to click to get turn-by-turn directions there too. You can test the service by visiting the Scout web page. The Verge notes that the new Telenav service’s performance isn’t perfect, but it’s ok and it’s competitive with Nokia’s HTML5 offering. Martin Perez at IntoMobile said last month that he was “pretty impressed” with Scout. Though based on HTML5, the service is limited to inclusion in native mobile apps on iOS 5.1 at launch, Android support is forthcoming. “I can’t wait to see this feature get integrated into Android games and applications,” writes Cory Gunther at Android Community.
“This is an enormous amount of added value for any mobile, location-based website or app focused on travel, shopping, local search, deals and more,” said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and vice president of products for TeleNav back in December when the company announced it was working on this offering. “With one line of code, you can give your customers one-click access to premium, voice-guided turn-by-turn directions to any location, including hotels, restaurants, merchants or deal locations. Customers never need to leave your app.”
