The release of free navigation on additional devices not only disrupts the personal navigation industry, but also other smartphone players, like RIM’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone. Bill Glurley, a venture capitalist with Benchmark Capital, makes the argument clearly in a blog post: “Without access to their own mapping data, these vendors now face an interesting dilemma. Do you risk flying naked without free navigation or do you suck it up and swallow the above average royalty fee for each and every handset? Neither option is stellar. This problem isn’t nearly as daunting as the one now faced by the Windows Mobile and Symbian teams.  As software providers, they are lucky to get a per unit royalty equal to that extracted by the GPS data guys. If they are now forced to integrate this data merely to keep their product competitive, their gross margin just went negative. Ouch!”

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) owns an extensive mapping collection through its acquisition of Navteq, so perhaps it will be the next one to roll out free navigation. But it remains to be seen if others can or will follow. Perhaps the threat won’t be significant until Google rolls out the service internationally. The Google Maps download is available in the Android Market today for only those in the U.S. The release does not have some features that are available on Android 2.0, like the ability to use the “Navigate to” voice command, so Google recommends creating a shortcut for your homescreen. You can even create a “Home” shortcut that will navigate you home, no matter where you are. The release also includes the new “Layers feature,” which lets you overlay information on the map, like transit lines and Wikipedia articles about places.