NAVIGON Intros AppInteract for iPhone App Development

Leading provider of mobile phone on-board navigation NAVIGON AG announced on Wednesday the release of AppInteract, a new open app interface aimed at iPhone application developers. According to the company, the new solution is meant to offer developers the possibility to include a link in their applications through which the MobileNavigator from NAVIGON can be launched with a simple tap.

The new AppInteract delivers a simple script that, according to the company, “promotes the powerful model of communication between applications on the iPhone.” The new solution is meant to address one of the main issues that location based app users face, such as the fact that they cannot receive instant turn-by-turn directions, even if the application provides them with content like restaurants, reviews or city guides.

However, the new AppInteract has been designed so as to offer developers the possibility to integrate a direct link to MobileNavigator, through which users will receive directions to the content they just found. According to NAVIGON, this will eliminate the need for a user to remember an address or point of interest and to manually enter it in its navigation software solution.

“For example, if you find a restaurant in an app that has implemented our AppInteract interface, you can get turn-by-turn directions to a chosen place instantly,” said Gerhard Mayr, vice-president worldwide mobile phones and new markets, NAVIGON. “Our aim is to provide elegant and easy to use navigation solutions, for our customers, as well as to the developer community.”

NAVIGON's premium navigation software is already available on various mobile platforms around the world, including the Apple iPhone, Microsoft's Windows Mobile or Google's Android platform. Those iPhone application developers interested in using the new solution from the company can find all the necessary information on the company's website.

“As one of the first to implement and use NAVIGON’S AppInteract interface, we found it was a problem-free way to integrate, test and deploy an award winning navigation technology,” said Ortwin Gentz, CEO, FutureTap. “Users can launch their MobileNavigator directly from the Where To? 2.5 application and are guided to the chosen point of interest. Location Based Services and real turn-by-turn navigation perfectly match and fit with our vision of a collaborative and linked application environment.”