Greetings. Since I've been enthusiastically noting the open development and deployment ecosystem of Google's Android mobile OS (as will appear on HTC G1 T-Mobile phones when they hit the streets the middle of next week), I've received a bunch of queries about a perceived oddity in the Android development (SDK) licensing rules.

In particular, while the SDK provides extensive and deep access APIs (programming interfaces) to Google mapping data, including Street View, the license appears to specifically prohibit the development of "turn-by-turn" navigation systems (a la TomTom).

Inquiring minds are asking me why this should be the case?

Obviously I can't read Google's mind, but it's worth noting that the iPhone SDK (which operates in a much more restricted deployment environment than Android) contains a similar clause.

This get complicated to analyze from the outside. It's worth remembering that at least some iPhone mapping applications are directly or indirectly using Google mapping data. Also, Google itself licenses various mapping data from other sources, who we can assume impose their own varied usage restrictions.

For both Google and Apple, the complexities of mapping data licensing and related commercial considerations are likely to be nontrivial -- navigation applications are in a highly competitive space these days.

Rather than add much further to the speculation on this topic, I've queried Google directly for the straight scoop, and I've been assured that I should be receiving the details soon. When I do, I'll pass them along of course.

You have reached your destination. Play nice.

--Lauren--