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Nokia Keeps Quietly Mapping The World
LucidBeast writes "Mapping the world isn't easy as our friends in Cupertino have found out. Google's maps seem ubiquitous, but there is a less known real heavyweight still mapping the world. Nokia acquired Navteq in 2007, and five years later they are still reading fleet data and scanning cities with LIDAR and 360 degree cameras."
That would solve their map problem.
They can afford it.
Everyone will be happy.
But MSFT.
Don't do it!
After losing pretty much all of its traction in the mobile space, Microsoft has been trying desperately to build some buzz for the new Windows Phone and upcoming Windows tablets - and here we have a story about Nokia's mapping efforts.
While possibly interesting, I expect the timing of this story is, shall we say, not completely a matter of happenstance.
#DeleteChrome
A good friend of mine works in this department as a product manager; he has been there since they were NavTeq. You should take a look at Nokia's financials before busting out the "M$ evil" conspiracy theories. The navigation unit is the only part of the company that is profitable right now. They have excellent data (probably the best available, mention is halfway down the page) and they do a lot more with it than put it in phones. Basically, anybody who needs to have vetted data (ie, when salesmen need to tell clients that the data is better than what they can get online for free) to put in a product use Nokia maps. Many high-end cars with built in navigation are using them for example.
The higher-ups at Nokia know this. They are trying to leverage this to position the company for growth. Their internal mantra is that "Google is what, Microsoft is who, and we are _where_". Hence, the publicity: this is the only bright spot for Nokia and they need to milk it. If you ask me, they are grasping at straws; but the I can see the logic.
Why the slashvertisment for NAVTEQ? They're not the only option out there. TeleAtlas (TomTom) is similarly licensing their map data, and is used by maps and navigation apps, particularly by or for companies who are direct competitors with Nokia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tele_Atlas
http://www.gpsreview.net/navteq-vs-tele-atlas/
For the record, I have never worked for either company.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
www.mapquest.com
Technology Review has a similar piece.
Obi-Wan: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were sudden
Some cars have forward facing cameras already for lane keeping systems or lane departure warning. Some of these cameras can read signs and let you know if you're speeding, etc. Ultimately it may be the car companies who have the best maps which might be updated continuously by tens of millions of cars. Hmmm time for me to transfer to the driver assistance systems part of the company....
This may also explain why Google wants driverless cars, so they can fully automate the data collection.
Offline maps. When I got rid of my Nokia N8 and bought a Samsung SIII, there were two things I missed, one is the camera (the N8's was far better in several ways), the other is the maps. With the Nokia you got offline maps for the entire world and the app itself was excellent (though it had teething problems to start with). Turn by turn directions that don't sound like a robot (I'm looking at you Google), were as good as or better than most commercial Sat Nav devices, accurate (looking at you Apple), regularly updated and, I'll say it again, offline maps! In Australia at least you can be quite often out of range of a decent data connection.
The commercial Navigon app that I got bundled with my SIII is definitely inferior and you only get maps for Oceania, I have to buy the European/US ones if I need them.
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
Nokia has a value of $10billion and is losing money. Apple could buy them with cash.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
supl.nokia.com works fine. Don't know what you're talking about. All Nokia phones use the Nokia AGPS server.
They are taking the jab because apple most defiantly isn't at the same level as even windows phone.
Defiantly, or definitely? I like the former, fwiw. Hahaaaaa. :-|
PS (full disclosure). I want neither an iBauble nor a WP*, but would accept a rooted Android if there were a gun pointed at my head. Just sayin'.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
http://maps3d.svc.nokia.com/webgl/index.html
'cause, the quality doesn't seem up to that described in the article - I'd kind of assumed it was calculated from multiple angles from overhead plane flights.
-- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"'
Yeah well you can go to a overseas desert place like Cyprus and get nothing on Nokia Maps too. Try and see.
Strikes me as unbelievable but Nokia actually did remove a whole country from its maps because of political pressure.
"Blah blah blah." - [citation needed]
You can always cache google maps.. menu->make available offline->select an area.. Though I should admit it cumbersome..
AAPL could also buy TomTom, one of the main suppliers of maps for IOS6. According to TomTom, their data is fine, but the integration of their data and other sources seems to be causing Apples problems on IOS6. Nokia has the legacy weight of a phone division, while TomTom is barely making any hardware themselves these days and is only into maps and services related to that. At the current price point, TomTom would be far more interesting for AAPL than NOK would be.
TomTom already has an extreme amount of experience in making map applications work on several platforms and they have a foot in the door with several car manufacturers that use TomTom data and applications on their on-board systems. This would give them an entrance in a market they currently are not in. How would you think "iTunes on your car" and "iOS apps on your car" would sound to most people? The first car to offer that would no doubt get a lot of publicity and sales, unless it was a true lemon. TomTom could very well be their entrance into that market and Nokia only has Navteq maps and a bunch of patents as a valuable asset. The patents are being sold off rapidly to fund the rest of the company, so the merit of that is rapidly diminishing. Putting a suffering phone division against the Navteq bit, you don't have a lot of value left I think.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Did you just compare maps lacking data to company being forced to remove data due to the longest standing internal NATO conflict?
...to complaints about mapping errors!
Navteq. Consistently putting my house in the wrong street since 1991
(despite complaints before map reporter and many (completely ignored) map reports over the past 8 years) (Yes, I know that map makers put in small deliberate errors as a 'watermark' to foil competitors copying their data. But having to explain the DHL van driver where my house is over and over again really gets annoying!)