MapQuest takes on Google Maps with Android navigation app

AOL-owned navigation solutions provider MapQuest is squaring off against Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) on the digital services giant's own turf, introducing a free turn-by-turn directions application optimized for Android devices. MapQuest for Android boasts features including voice-guided navigation, voice search, a map toolbar promising one-click access to restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations and parking, walking and driving directions, and a live traffic flow/incidents feed updated every five minutes. The app also introduces OpenStreetMap data, enabling international usage as well as directly reporting errors onto the map.

MapQuest notes that roughly 8.6 million people access its mobile website each month, with 1.4 million of them on Android devices. Even so, MapQuest for Android faces a formidable challenge: Google's own Google Maps solution ranks alongside Facebook and the Weather Channel as the most popular applications across rival smartphone platforms according to data published in mid-2010 by The Nielsen Company. Thirty-three percent of smartphone owners access Google Maps each month--it's the most popular app among Android owners (used by 67 percent), second on BlackBerry (34 percent) and third on iPhone (47 percent, 1 percentage point behind Apple's [NASDAQ:AAPL] iTunes). Only Facebook ranks higher--the mobile social networking service is used by 39 percent of smartphone owners each month.

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