Bing Maps Now Free for Mobile

Recently, Redmond-based software giant Microsoft announced the availability of a new solution for developers of applications for mobile phones and, implicitly, for the users of these handsets, namely Bing Maps.

The company has announced the introduction of Bing Maps as the default map control solution in the new Windows Phone 7 SDK, and added that other platforms can also benefit from its service's features.

“But it's not just about Windows Phone - we've made Bing Maps free for you to create consumer-facing mobile applications on any platform (For details, see the Bing Maps Mobile Terms of Use),” a recent post on Bing Community notes.

The Bing Maps control was included in the final release of Windows Phone Development Tools, offering application builders the possibility to take full advantage of this navigation solution.

According to Microsoft, developers choosing Bing Maps for their applications should be able to take advantage of a full suite of map functionality for their users, including search, directions, scroll, zoom, aerial view, street view and much more.

This applies mainly to Windows Phone 7 app builders, but this does not meant that developers of software solutions for other mobile operating systems won't be able to benefit from this.

“We’ve also provided this control with a free commercial license for your Windows Phone apps. Go forth and be awesome,” Microsoft announced via its Windows Phone Developer Blog.

A wide range of details on Bing Maps Control for Windows Phone 7 are available for developers via MSDN's resources.

“If you're new to Windows Phone development, it's super-easy - we've seen reports of 3-hour-dev cycles vs. two weeks or more for similar-functioning Android builds,” the aforementioned blog post reads.

Those developers interested in taking advantage of the new resources from Microsoft should head over to the company's website here to learn more on how they can create innovative mapping applications, fast.