GPS makers jubilant as Google "validates" their market with Google Maps Navigation

That’s what they will say, anyway, and who can blame them? They’re fucked, and they know it, now that Google has introduced turn-by-turn navigation on Android. Google has become what Microsoft used to be — the evil dicks who look around, find some area where people are making money, and say, Hey, fuck it, we’re bored, so let’s do the same thing for free and put those guys out of business. Why not? We’re a bunch of smart little kids, and our company doesn’t need to make money on this, so let’s have some fun!

Which is why, around here, we now call Google the New Borg, or NB for short. And why Eric’s new nickname, among his peers in the Valley, is “Freeman,” because he’s such a fucking whiz when it comes to making stuff that’s free, but so far hasn’t demonstrated much ability to make something that people will actually pay for. For his part, Eric says we can have Google Maps Nav on iPhone just as soon as we approve Google Voice, plus any and all other apps they send our way, and as soon as I drive over to Mountain View, personally apologize, and then turn around, bend over, and let the Wonder Twins kick me in the ass.

Which is to day, we’re talking about it.

But back to the GPS guys. We haven’t seen any comments from Garmin or TomTom yet but I’m sure they’re working up some version of the old, “We’re so glad this big mean company has come into our space because that will raise awareness of the category and then people will look at all the products and they’ll choose us because the Google product is new and free and ours is old and ridiculously expensive. We think consumers are smart enough to look at all the choices in a market and go with the company that has a proven track record of gouging customers with high prices for a service that some other company has now demonstrated is so easy to create that it can be delivered for zero dollars. Our takeway: this is great news for the sector, and especially great news for us.”

Katie is watching the wires to see how long it takes them to say this. More as it develops.