The personal navigation device (PND) market is under threat from the increasing proliferation of high end smartphones that are able to run navigation apps as just one of many functions. At least, that’s the premise put forward by many within the mobile industry. With players like Nokia and Google making turn by turn navigation readily available to smartphone users, are the days of the dedicated satnav truly numbered?

Competition is certainly warming up in the navigation space, with iPhone users finally getting a free turn by turn offering in the shape of Skobbler. In partnership with the OpenStreetMap community, Skobbler has made some waves in the market with its community-based approach to mapping and navigation.

I had a note in from the team at free navigation service, Waze, to let me know that they’ve launched an early beta version of Waze for BlackBerry. If you haven’t come across Waze before, it’s a simply fantastic community mapping service that quite a lot of people are going nuts over. The service enables you to swiftly identify the best and most usable map routes — like a ‘path well trodden’ for the connected age.

Location-based mobile social network Gypsii has teamed up with mapping and navigation firm Telmap to develop richer, location-enabled services.

Finnish handset vendor Nokia revealed what it’s been up to with location and mapping firm Navteq which it bought in 2008 for $8.1bn. The monster handset vendor is shaking up the mobile space by making mapping and turn by turn navigation available for free to a potential 83 million users.