Sep 22, 2010 13:05 GMT  ·  By

One of the major carriers in the US, Verizon Wireless has just announced the introduction of a new software development kit called NAVBuilder Inside. The exclusive SDK helps developers to include location, maps and navigation features into their applications.

Further, the SDK also enables cross-platform development and distribution over Android, Blackberry, Brew and Windows Mobile operating systems.

The NAVBuilder Inside SDK has been announced during today's Verizon Developer Community Conference, which takes place in Las Vegas.

“LBS features, such as location, maps and directions, are the hottest features in application development, especially when they can be embedded directly into an application so Verizon Wireless device users don’t have to leave an app to take advantage of the capability,” said Kristi Crum, director of consumer products, Verizon Wireless.

“With NAVBuilder Inside, we’ve made it simple for developers to use uniform APIs to quickly add the most-wanted features to their applications on many different operating systems and get them to market quickly,” added Crum.

Devs can also use NAVBuilder Inside to create or enhance applications with the purpose of taking advantage of LBS features, including directions, finders, alerts and geo-tagging.

NAVBuilder Inside is currently available and can be downloaded from the Verizon Developer Community portal. The SDK has been split into two parts: MapKit and LocationKit.

The MapKit provides an interface for embedding maps (Regular, Satellite and Hybrid), local search, and directions directly into applications, so users don’t have to leave the application to experience the functionality.

LocationKit enables fast location positioning for applications using standalone GPS, Cell ID or Wi-Fi, and also enables Cell ID location positioning on non-Wi-Fi capable devices, such as Brew-enabled feature phones.

Additionally, the APIs offer the capability to provide 3-D voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation through VZ Navigator.

NAVBuilder Inside was developed in cooperation with TeleCommunication Systems, Inc.