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Nokia Bets Big On Mapping
angry tapir writes "Nokia and Oracle have joined forces on mapping, with details of the deal to be announced at the Oracle OpenWorld conference. To differentiate its smartphones from the competition, Nokia is betting big on location as well as imaging technology. Oracle is expected to add Nokia's mapping technology to its applications. Part of Nokia's location strategy is signing deals for the use of its Navteq mapping technology with as many companies as possible. Besides the deal with Oracle, Nokia has recently announced contracts with car makers BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Korean Hyundai, which will all use Navteq map data in some of their vehicles. Garmin will also start using Nokia data on transit services and walking routes to power a new Urban Guidance feature, which will be available as part of its Navigon app for Android and iOS. Nokia's most important partner on navigation, though, is Microsoft. All smartphones based on Windows Phone 8 will have Nokia's Drive application as standard, while Microsoft's Bing Maps geographical search engine uses Nokia data."
After Microsoft, Nokia chooses a partnership with Oracle ...
They really started late on the evil scene, but they decided to learn fromthe best !
http://osm.org/
Nokia needs to differentiate itself to survive, and it seems to have found a workable niche just as Apple stumbles.By getting Oracle and Microsoft as partners, they also get a degree of protection from American protectionism, that kept them out of the US market in the past. It pains me to write it, but we may have to re-evaluate Elop.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Google Maps already has all these features, including walking directions that continue inside some buildings (big shops, stations etc.)
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Will they attempt crowdsourcing like Googles mapmaker? They have it available right now, but only for African countries. Google has shown it isn't easy. Mapmaker IMHO sucks. Edits I've done misteriously sissappeared after a few weeks live, and their cycle maps don't come anywhere near OpenStreetmap.
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
Yeah. I have heard of it and really a success for the company.
Wouldn't it be funny if Apple bought Nokia, just for their mapping tech?
Participatory Governance : The only feasible option for a real democracy, where everyone really does have a say.
I have it on my N9, and have never even tried it yet. But now that there is so much hype about it, I guess I should take a look at it.
It is quite ironic, that an Apple recommendation would motivate me to use something on my Nokia.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I welcome this. Nokia makes this move to survive and to capture market share. The worst case result will be that other competitors will also improve. Nokia isn't in the position to be evil and so the good/evil discussions are pretty much moot for the time being.
My Swiss Franc still is on Google though.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Why differentiate, it's a fast growing market, there's room for lots of me-too products and they have good hardware skills and marketing to sell a lot of handsets.
So start producing Android phones, just as other new handset makers are doing well on Android, so too Nokia can have success in that market.
NnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooKKKKKiiiiiiaaaaa !!
Both from the arctic, and both destined for hell !! You wanna go for a riiiide ??
Hurray, let's all map the planet multiple times!
And I can't get excited about any of it making it to an Android smartphone.
:(
Why did you make a Microsoft seed your CEO?
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
There really isn't any room for me-too products. RIM is trying to make the perfect business portable communications device - and I hope they succeed - and Nokia is trying to make a stand-out product for people who travel light: good mapping, good cameras, and an OS which isn't iOS, for when iOS becomes meh with the youth market. I hope they succeed too.An iOS/Android world would be pretty gray.
As for Elop, well, my view may be different from the Slashdot norm. Microsoft wants to sell Windows phones and, if they buy Nokia, the other second tier manufacturers may well take fright. If Elop genuinely saw the need for partnering, faced with the two elephants in the room, and pursued that as a strategy, then he deserves some credit.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
When you can use gps enabled android devices to walk down or drive down the street using gps enable street view in real time. Maps are fine but what Google is doing is something completely different.
Otherwise sending photo cars all over the planet just does not make financial sense. Hook it into to their site advertising system and you have a largely advertising paid navigation system. Everybody else will eat Google's dust because of the money Google has already spent gathering the pictorial information, stitching it together and then putting in positioning context in a web accessible format. I would imagine that a paid version of the software that will street view navigation would be add free, but do not be surprised if within the next year you see something like this launched on Nexus, Samsungs and in some vehicles with the processor and navigation support. The do not be surprised if at the same time Google either buys into or somehow strategically partners in the satellite and cell/wifi tower business as well.
Scary stuff and no doubt there will be one tonne of shit from all the anti Google people and more shit like Apple suing Samsung and others. With Ford and others drinking the Microsoft coolaid do not be surprised if GM partners with Google and OnStar for something really amazing. ( though I would only use something like this while stopped ) Looking at gps maps while driving is bad enough and has caused accidents, looking at actually photos of where you are going in real time is down right scary.
Nokia is going to have one hell of a hard time catching up but if the Microsoft and Apple sponsored fud doctors manage to get Google services banned from use while driving in the US they might have a chance at least in Fords and Hyundais.
Slashdot is full of armchair CEOs, but I do wonder how many of them could succeed running a market stall.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Yes, I'm sure Nokia has a shot at doing mapping better than better than blah, blah, blah.
The point is that they MUST do it better than the competition because, as Apple Maps has shown, doing worse is not an option and doing it just as well is a recipe for failure.
Good luck to them on this SECOND TRY at maps.
They have been the leading provider for many years of navigation and geographic data, no news here, They were around before google maps. Also, he cost of google maps isn't free, you pay for it with eyeballs on advertisements.
Of course, having worked in the industry, I would know all this and not have to make up stuff.
What makes the bloggers and media hacks think they know anything about the industry.
Because they use goodle maps?
Everybody else will eat Google's dust because of the money Google has already spent gathering the pictorial information
I disagree. A 3D overhead view, like both Apple and Nokia offer is a good alternative to street view.
I fact I would say it's slightly better. Why would you drive down the street "looking at street view". That's what you are seeing right now while driving!
An overhead 3D view gives you more a sense of what is around you, while still being able to make out details of buildings to find something exactly.
The 3D overhead view is much cheaper to generate, since it takes a few passes with planes (and a lot of computer time!) and you have covered a large region. For companies the size of Nokia or Apple that is an expense they can easily afford.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
street view and 3D maps serve different purposes
For me, I use them for exactly the same thing. To get an idea of where somewhere I am going looks like so I'll have a better chance of knowing when I am there or if I missed something.
What else would you use street view for?
Both improve over simple satellite view because you get a better sense of the height of things around and what the area will look like in person.
google has both.
So does the iPhone, there's an app that lets you access Street View images. In fact it's easier to use than Street View on the original iPhone Google Maps ever was.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
OSM rocks. The data isn't perfect, but the price is right.
FreeNAV is the Android version. I've used maps in the USA and Europe. Sadly, when I was in Asia, South and Central America, I didn't know about FreeNAV.
It definitely isn't perfect, but I'll be damned if I'll ever give Nokia, Apple, Oracle, Microsoft and a few other mega-companies another dime on purpose.
I'd be dead without mine. Picture this: me moving about 30 miles per hour down a long straight hill in the Bay area, pedaling hard, and misjudging the light I see changing on the side street, I plow my bike full-on into the side of a car turning right in front of me. The 100+ feet of skid marks I left on the asphalt before correctly determining that I would not be able to stop were not enough to avoid the collision. About 30 feet before my bike slammed into the side of the vehicle, I stood up on the left side pedal, timed my departure, and pushed off, jumping from it in time to fly through the air just behind the car as my bike proceeded ahead. It was a cool day, and I had a jacket on. I sailed upside down, face up past the car and landed on my back and head, sliding along the ground on my jacket and helmet for a good 20 or 30 feet farther down the slope. I remember coming to rest and laying there for a while, then getting up to check the car and the accident site. I was fine, though a little shaken up. Traffic had stopped in each direction and people were swarming around the car. The driver got out, completely white. I looked at the dent and my bike, crumpled and considerably shorter than it had ever been from one end to the other. People said they had seen sparks when the collision happened. I told the driver, looking at the dent, "I'm sorry about your car." He said in a high voice, "Never mind about the car! Are you all right?" I said I was fine. I felt pretty wobbly, though, and someone took me the rest of the way home. Later, I took the bike into our local shop, which was a good one. The guy behind the counter turned around from the bike he was working on, and when he saw what I had carried in, he put down the wrench, came around the counter, put his hand on my shoulder and said firmly but gently, "My friend, that bike is history." I would be dead without my helmet. Bikes are not just for tooling around parks slowly, looking at the scenery. And even when you think they are, or just vehicles for ambling gently from place to place, things can turn ugly in an unexpected way very, very fast. Wear your helmet.
Some people can only see the past and maybe whats right in front of them. They are the people buying apple at $600 per share not $11.