Google Brings Public Transit Directions To Symbian, Windows Mobile Phones

Google has added access to public transit directions for Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile phones through its Google Maps for Mobile client application. Recently the company made them available for BlackBerry and Java-based mobile phones. (Here’s a video that shows how it works on mobile handsets.)

Google Transit has public transit information and directions for approximately 50 cities on a global basis.

Google’s continuing focus on and improvement of its mobile mapping client is significant because Maps are a high-demand category in mobile — more so than on the desktop. In addition, according to a presentation by comScore at SMX Local-Mobile last week, Google Maps is the leading mobile mapping and navigation tool in the US market:

Also, according to comScore, mobile mapping usage has grown dramatically in the past several months and much faster than corresponding online map usage:

However, most people are accessing maps via a mobile browser and not a downloadable client application like Maps for Mobile.

Maps and directions are one of the most popular content categories in mobile. A comScore survey showed high demand for these capabilities among those who had not yet subscribed to data plans:

1. Maps / Driving Directions 2. Directory Assistance 3. Weather 4. Local Search 5. Email 6. Instant Messaging 7. News 8. Pay Bills 9. Sports 10. Financial Information 11. Shopping 12. Online Gaming 13. Access Home Cable TV 14. Social Networking Sites 15. Horoscope 16. Adult Content 17. Dating Services

Source: comScore (May, 2008), n=2,000

Nielsen Mobile similarly presented data at SMX Local-Mobile that showed, among users of GPS-enabled handsets or location-based services, directions (driving and walking) were among the highest usage categories. Accordingly, today one could argue that Maps and Directions are more in demand and widely used than mobile search.