14 DAY TRIAL // MapQuest, one of the most famous and trusted companies on the Internet, has just announced a lot of enhancements for its series of mobile mapping and search.
These new upgrades to its orientation software are the ones that will reinforce MapQuests' leading position in the online mapping domain.
According to Nielsen, this is the company that held 68 percent market in November, a lot more than its two other competitors, Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps that only got 32 percent of the mobile mapping market.
They have managed to take such a big share by getting very creative and tapping into government data sources thus being able to index locations of post offices, public parks, schools and a number of other interest points that have been left out by the other mapping engines.
The MapQuest Mobile product will be upgraded to the 2.5 version and this upgrade will bring a lot of new features to the locating solution, including walking directions, multipoint routing and 15 million points of interest, a fact that makes a very cheap alternative to the more expensive in-car GPS solutions.
These features are also available in the online mapping engine and, this way, the company wants to enter the mobile environment by the Internet gateway. The online ability to find landmarks and tourist destinations is also one of the main reasons behind the lead market share MapQuest has at the moment.
Alan Beigai, the Director of Wireless MapQuest, has declared that "we need to extend our reach and be on as many devices as possible. Our goal is also to fine tune content and functionality of mobile applications to match that of the online experience." This declaration has also been confirmed by VP and GM Jim Greiner, a featured speaker at The Kelsey Group's recent Interactive Local Media Conference.
Not less important, they have also announced that their other mobile mapping product, the MapQuest Navigator, will be available on Blackberry devices on Sprint and Nextel.
The Navigator software offers audio and text turn-by-turn directions, is an enhanced platform for GPS enabled smartphones and other types of GPS mobile devices.