We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon
Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Nokia Location Based Services for Microsoft Windows Phones ...
For Nokia the decision to "give away" Nokia Drive is driven by a desire to open (control) the location platform across the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem. Over the next few years that will be far more important that the benefits provided by an exclusive app. That desire to play a key role in the Windows Phone platform is significant in itself, but more importantly Nokia's ambition for its location platform (known as Nokia Where) extend far beyond mobile. It's already dominant in the automotive industry (90%+ market share) and is used in a large number of websites. Given Nokia's partnership with Microsoft it's not hard to imagine that it may play an important role in Windows more generically (tablets, laptop and PCs) in the future. - Rafe Blandford, AAS -
>> How Nokia will differentiate with location-based services
Pino Bonetti Nokia Conversations [The official blog of Nokia] June 29, 2012
Our announcement on June 20th, that we are making Nokia Drive available on other, non-Nokia Windows Phone 8 devices generated some interesting feedback that deserves a response.
Turn-by-turn navigation is becoming a standard features on smartphones
We have believed in navigation on smartphones for several years, from when we first acquired Gate5 and then NAVTEQ. Back then everyone was assuming that the PND (personal navigation device) was the device of choice for navigation and that navigation services wouldn’t be relevant in a smartphone. This is why we were the first to introduce a PND-like navigation offering and the first smartphone with GPS on the market.
Now, opinion is very different. Smartphones create a much more fluid location-based experience because they are always with us: in-car, when we walk around, when we are at a restaurant or at home.At the same time navigation is a feature we expect to find in every smartphone. Think about it: would you ever buy a smartphone that doesn’t play music? The same rule is very quickly being applied to navigation too.
Not surprisingly, across all the different app stores in the market, navigation apps are always among the most downloaded. Because location based services are now more than ever at the core of our business, we are going to license Nokia Drive, the best navigation solution on the market, to all Windows Phone 8 devices.
Nokia Drive might not be exclusive to Nokia smartphones anymore but that doesn’t mean that we can’t differentiate with apps anymore. How can we still do it? First of all, navigation on Windows Phone 8 will be always exclusively provided by Nokia. Then by having the very closest, deepest integration possible. So watch this space for more apps and upgrades that become a seamless aspect of the overall Nokia Lumia experience.
But there is more to it than this. In fact, this is an area that creates a lot of confusion when people don’t distinguish between apps and platform. The Nokia Location Platform (often referred to by us as the Where Platform) provides a set of APIs that let organisations develop map-related apps and services. This platform provides the ability for people to get from A to B, decide their best mode of transport, avoid delays and get the most out of their local environments, wherever they are.
The location platform business
The location business can be explained in terms of ingredients and recipes. The map and all the info it contains are the ingredients. The location platform is a set of basic-to-advanced recipes to cook those ingredients. And the apps are dishes ready to eat.
If you are hungry, you go to a deli or to a restaurant and you eat what you feel like at that moment. You want some sushi? You go to a Japanese restaurant. That’s a bit like being on foot and deciding to use Nokia Transport to get somewhere. Customisation in these cases is limited: you know how to order or how to operate the app, but everything is constrained by the programmed user experience.
If you are a cook, with more or less expertise, however, you can buy ingredients and follow recipes to create your own dish. Even more tailored to your need. It requires some effort, but you can decide on the taste, size and appearance of the final product. The same happens if you are a big or small developer and you want to use our location platform and content to build your own location-based experiences.
Perhaps you can now see that the location business is not only about apps (final products) but also, and most importantly, about the platform (ingredients and recipes).
The ‘where’-enabled Windows Phone 8 ecosystem [See Video at end of this post]
By opening the location platform to the whole Windows Phone 8 ecosystem, we are differentiating Nokia as a company because we are the company most able to cover the location business on all levels. And we are promoting innovation because all Windows Phone 8 developers and manufacturers can build location-based experiences on top of our platform. As we’ve said before, success in the mobile sector today is all about platforms and ecosystems. In the case of location platforms, this is more accurate than ever, because all smartphones are nowadays equipped with GPS. ###
>> Nokia Drive for all Windows Phone 8 smartphones
Pino Bonetti Nokia Conversations [The official blog of Nokia] June 20, 2012
Location-based services, as Nokia announced last week, are becoming more and more core to our strategy. We’re focusing on location-based services, not just at Nokia, but bring our extending our services across many industries.
Today, we are making Nokia Drive available to other Windows Phone 8 partners to offer a turn-by-turn navigation experience for people in over 110 countries. Nokia Drive is one of the key experiences on Nokia Lumia smartphones, thanks to its ease of use and the experience that has gone into developing our location-based services. With Nokia Drive on Windows Phone 8, we will make drive navigation effortless.
Image credits: Samsung and HTC respectively. This is a mockup of what Nokia Drive might look like on different Windows Phone 8 devices.
Nokia Drive is one of the major apps that on Nokia’s location platform. Today, we are also making this platform and its unrivalled quality of data and richness of features available on Windows Phone 8 for all partners. This means that Nokia’s Location platform will be central to the Windows Phone 8 experience, with the intention of developing smartphones that bring advanced location experiences. Windows Phone 8 partners and developers will be able to use our location assets to build location-based apps and experiences of superior quality.
Nokia has more quality location data than any smartphone manufacturer in the market. Our platform is the most advanced mobile location platform in the world because it offers true offline functionality (for the past six years), fast client-side map rendering (50 fps) and only requires 10 per cent of the bandwidth when compared to traditional server-side map platforms.
The Nokia location platform is the biggest in the world:
• We have maps data for more than 190 countries in more than 50 languages and navigation in more than 110 countries
• We collect information from Nokia Drive users and local authorities to provide traffic alerts in 26 countries, and also allow dynamic rerouting
• We have venue maps in over 5,000 shopping malls, train stations, airport, sports venues, etc. in 35 countries
• We support multi-modal routing: by car, on foot (including footpaths, shortcuts, etc. in over 00 cities) and by public transportation (over 100 cities)
Also, Nokia’s location data is not confined to smartphones and computers. Our data already powers four out of five cars with in-car navigation and our customer list includes top brands in the tech and auto industries: Bing, Yahoo!, BMW and Ford.
All of these elements are coming together to form the ultimate Where experience, connecting individuals with the world around them. At Nokia, we are working on constantly improving that experience, and striving to deliver novel and meaningful customer interactions with our location platform, content and apps. ###
>> Maps and the importance of offline
Pino Bonetti Nokia Conversations [The official blog of Nokia] June 7, 2012
Since we first introduced navigation on our smartphones, we’ve been taking offline maps very seriously. That is why we have been using vector maps since 2006. For smartphones to become the ideal personal navigation device that never leaves your side, they have to work with preloaded maps and completely offline.
Offline user experience
Offline maps are at the core of our navigation offering (with Nokia Drive) and we have been developing the perfect know-how over the past six years. Offering offline maps is not only about giving the option to cache some data offline for later use, it’s a complete experience.
Maps are either preloaded on the smartphone to offer a great out-of-the-box experience or people are taken through an easy first-use process to make their favourite countries and regions available offline. This provides an easy way to manage your offline maps that you can always go back to, regardless of service provider coverage.
An offline experience is not only about street maps, it’s also about offline available points of interest (POIs) to enable offline search, it’s about navigation voices (over 70 of them, btw) available on-device and offline rerouting.
Size does matter
And where do offline maps actually go? They are locally saved on your device, the memory usage of which you are probably very protective, and rightly so. That’s why we are giving you complete flexibility and not limiting you to a 10 square mile radius. You can download an entire country (e.g. USA for 1.8 GB, China for 862 Mb, UK for 203 MB) or specific regions (e.g. California for 147 MB, England for 166 MB, Beijing for 63 MB): just like having a shopping list.
Numbers don’t lie
So now you have all these shiny maps stored offline and you are ready to go. What will you do with them? Most probably you are going to put your smartphone in your car and start navigating. In your home city, in your country or abroad for vacation. It would be a shame to travel somewhere and discover you couldn’t do much with the offline maps because no navigation instructions were available. This is why our voice guided turn-by-turn navigation is not only available for 1, 2 or 29 countries; it is available for over 110 countries.
>> Nokia Maps, Drive and Transport updated for Lumia
Pino Bonetti Nokia Conversations [The official blog of Nokia] March 20, 2012
If you are a Nokia Lumia user, some applications are exclusive to you. Among those, we’re proud to list Nokia Transport, Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive, which we recently updated with new features.
To get them, look no further than the Windows Phone Marketplace on your Nokia Lumia: you’ll be automatically notified when the updates are available for download.
We mentioned some of the new features included in these releases about two weeks ago but if you want to know more and discover what else is there, just keep reading.
Nokia Drive
You’re driving on an unknown road and you suddenly wonder whether you’re still respecting the speed limits. Or the road ahead is almost empty and you instinctively speed up a bit. Do any of these examples sound familiar? The new Nokia Drive can help you in those circumstances.
You can drive more safely because speed limits and relevant notifications are clearly visible in the app dashboard. Warnings are fully customizable with audio alerts and specific triggers.
Additionally, we introduced your most requested feature in this update: a complete offline experience. When you open Nokia Drive, under Settings > Manage maps you can download country maps for offline access. You can now rely on Nokia Drive in areas with poor network coverage or cut your data costs when you’re visiting foreign countries.
Nokia Maps
If you like to create a list of all the places you want to visit in a city, you’ll enjoy using the new feature of Nokia Maps that allows you to add places to favourites. And because you are most likely to share your new findings with friends, we made it easier to share place details and how to get there via SMS, email or social networks.
But this isn’t everything. On Nokia Maps you can also see the traffic situation in USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Belgium, Russia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, UK, France, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, India and UAE. Just use the live traffic view, which is available next to the map, satellite and public transport views.
By the way, when you plan a journey with trains and buses, you can now tap on each waypoint shown on the map to get immediately more information.
However, if you use public transport to commute or when visiting a foreign city, we suggest you to download the newest Nokia Transport app.
Nokia Transport
Available in more than 510 cities in 46 countries, Nokia Transport has received a lot of attention since we first introduced it at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The app provides an overview of how to get, within city limits, from A to B using public transportation. Walk directions are displayed to help you get to the next stop and from the last stop to your destination. In 86 cities we also include timetable information.
You don’t need to download specific apps for each city you visit, you have everything in one place. Conveniently enough, you can also pin a favourite destination to start and always know how to get there from anywhere in the city.
Just download Nokia Transport for your Nokia Lumia from the Windows Phone Marketplace. ###
The location business - Nokia's Where Platform [Apr 3, 2012 by Nokia]
