First, digital photography became nearly ubiquitous on the mobile phone. Then music and e-mail penetrated down the tiers of handsets. Now vehicle navigation is taking its shot. Once the purview of the high-end PDA, smartphone or dedicated personal navigation device, location-based, turn-by-turn navigation and route planning applications are making their way into the lowliest Java-enabled phones with a GPRS connection. They're not quite the killer app, but as more people become interested in navigation services — and shrink from the more expensive onboard vehicle systems and stand-alone PNDs — they may start turning to their mobile phones.

“There's not much the PND has over us except the big screen, and that screen isn't that big a deal,” said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and senior director of marketing for phone-navigation app developer TeleNav.

The ability to show large, detailed maps is something with which a 2-inch screen can't compete. But phone-navigation systems counter that disadvantage with enhanced audio capabilities, putting the service intelligence in the voice prompts. Ultimately, the phone-navigation companies think consumers will be more comfortable with voice prompts because following a 3-D map on screen is still a foreign concept to most.

Phone-based navigation's biggest advantages over the PND and dashboard competition are its portability and integration with the network. Dashboard systems are single-purpose devices, tied to the vehicle, and portable PNDs aren't on a customer's person 24 hours a day like the mobile phone. The phone-navigation app developers can take advantage of the wireless network to deliver real-time information such as traffic conditions and updated maps because, as network-based services, they download each route or map to the device from a network server when it's requested. PNDs and dashboard systems — which store map data locally — can't do that, said Thilo Koslowski, automotive analyst for Gartner.

“Over time, the small screen isn't going to be an issue,” Koslowski said. “The second and third generation of customers will be the ones with more specific interest in the portability and integration phone navigation can provide.”

In the U.S., TeleNav is the market leader, selling its own branded application over the Alltel, Cingular and Sprint decks, and supporting individual smartphones and connected PDAs on the Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile networks. Competitors Networks in Motion and Telmap both provide white-label services to carriers, with Networks in Motion powering the Verizon service, and European market leader Telmap powering Mapquest's phone-navigation application. The market is still very young, though, with estimates of only 1 million subscribers giving all three companies room to grow — especially as GPS becomes more prevalent in phones, and their Java and BREW clients scale down into more mid-range devices.

But perhaps their biggest competitive edge comes from the competition itself. The automotive industry sees onboard navigation systems as a cash cow, charging $1500 to $2000 for the typical system. Even a decent PND starts at $300, Koslowski said. As navigation services become more popular, consumers will start looking for cheaper alternatives, Koslowski said, and the phone that costs $50 with a service contract and a $10-per-month subscription will start looking pretty good.

Ori Lavie, Telmap director of technical operations, said he believes the phone navigation, PND and dashboard system makers will eventually carve individual niches for themselves.

“There's always going to be room for the onboard, in-car systems,” he said. “In fact, I see people using both systems as prices start lowering: one for the vehicle, one for personal use. Eventually, there will be integration between the two. We've already started to see it.”