Google yesterday announced the availability of its free turn-by-turn navigation application for phones running Android 1.6 (Donut) and higher operating system, such as the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and the G1. Thus far the application was only working with Android 2.0, the latest version of the operating system found on Verizon’s Droid device. The 1.6 compatible application is now available for download on the US Android market.

However, “Some features of Android 2.0 are not available on Android 1.6”, explained Michael Siliski, Product Manager at Google. For example, the ability to use the voice command is not available on Android 1.6 devices, but most of the application works the same.

Now that their home-made OS is well covered, we can expect Google to release in the forthcoming weeks additional versions for other operating systems. With a large US installed base, the Blackberry platform is a likely candidate, especially because Google will be able to bypass RIM - in offering it as an off deck download - even if the Canadian company and its carrier customers are not keen to have a free turn-by-turn navigation solution.

Last month (according to eWeek ), Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering at Google, said Google was working to build a version of Google Maps Navigation for the iPhone. While developing it is pretty straightforward; getting it approved by Apple might prove to be much more difficult.