German GPS firm Navigon has begun branching out into North America with its release of MobileNavigator North America Lite, available for free.

Readers should note that the free lite version does NOT offer the active route guidance most users are looking for in a GPS mapping application, although it can display a user’s position on its map and locate nearby points of interest. Full turn-by-turn functionality will be available in a future paid version.

Navigon released the full version of MobileNavigator Europe at an introductory price of $94.99 in late June, but the application is currently priced at $139.99. Navigon is one of the larger players bringing turn-by-turn GPS solutions to the iPhone, with AT&T opting for the same subscription service used on other platforms and TomTom embracing a forthcoming hardware/software combination solution also competing for users’ attention.

It seems GPS companies love the iPhone suddenly, and plan to embrace the platform in many future software releases.