BEIDOU refers to the geostationary satellites, while COMPASS refers to the Medium earth orbit satellites - there is already one compass prototype in orbit, singing its song.

Russia already has 19 GLONASS satellites (18 good modernized ones) up and running, and GPS has 35 operational with 32 actually broadcasting (though they're still in trouble since they're behind schedule on replacements).

Europe's Galileo has two prototype satellites in orbit (GIOVEA, GIOVEB) and one more on the ground (A2?). Though I have to admit I still think the chinese will beat the Europeans do to the 'too many cooks in the kitchen' problem with the EU system. The US took about 25 years to evolve the TIMATION program into the NAVSTAR GPS program and have it running, it took the Soviet Union about 15-20 years to go from prototypes to Inital operational capability, and yet the Europeans said they could go from no birds in 2004 to full constellation in 2008.... it worked out as well as expected. I'm going to guess Galileo reaches initial operational capability (19-24 satellites ) in 2011-2014.

Four sets of GPS satellites circling above, and I'll bet we still won't get precision down to the half-meter.
Not to mention the waste of resources doing the same thing another three times.

Most consumer system use cell tower to calculate their position anyway. So I don't see a big deal for consumer, but it's gonna get really congested in the space when every country is launching their own version of GPS

I am sure the Chinese global positioning system will be as open as the other three contenders (EU Galileo, Russia's GLONASS, US GPS). The way how the US government has interfered with the EU Galileo project and how the European pussies reacted should be motivation enough for the Chinese to built their own global positioning system. The lack of trust and uneven partnership are indeed the problem. That is why I welcome every independent space progam. I bet the Indians will follow. They landed successfully a probe on the moon.

Here is an interesting article about the European Columbus lab for the ISS. If this is how the US is dealing with the European partners, then don't be surprised that the Chinese do not trust the US.
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/columbus.html

BTW, the Europeans are building a new lauch site for Russian rockets in French Guiana, while the US is building new walls for its partners in Latin America.
http://eyeball-series.org/border-wall/border-wall.htm

Destination? <western

Directions: drive three blocks east, pull into the police station, and emerge with your hands behind your head.

Oh we'll see how this goes down. Galileo anyone? How's that working out for you Europeans?

Will they share like the current system? can anyone use it?

How likely is it for Apple to release an iPhone based on the Chinese GPS instead of the American? Close to zero, but I'd buy it if it was released.

Only the insane would trust the U.S. these days.