GLOBAL – Ever thought about using your phone to store your shopping list? I hadn’t, ever. Looking through the finalists for the NavTeq Global LBS Challenge (a developer comp, designed to highlight top Location Based apps and services) I stumpled upon Yoose – a mobile wallet concept, but not as you know it.
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ESPOO, Finland – It’s no secret that Nokia is swiftly evolving its internet and location based services, built on the original vision set out by CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo back in May of last year. So today sees Nokia stoke that engine for an extra performance boost with news that it’s acquiring Bit-side GmbH, a cutting-edge mobile software and services outfit that promises to help propel Nokia’s context-aware services, including Nokia Maps, to the next level. And fast.
LONDON, England – That was OPK’s description of the N97 when he was interviewed by the TimesOnline’s Lilly Peel, which was published today. The interview appeared in the Business section’s Movers & Shakers column, with the punchy title “Far from Silicon Valley comes challenge to Google and Microsoft”. It’s a nice piece, focussing a lot on Nokia’s move to being more like an Internet business. But it does reveal a few titbits about OPK which were news to me, and perhaps, news to you.
GLOBAL – It’s been a milestone year in Nokia’s evolution with CEO and President, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, announcing a fresh direction for Nokia that has already seen it beginning to move from being a handset company to an Internet services company.
INTERNATIONAL – With location-based services (LBS) stealing so many online column inches recently, one aspect that I think has dodged discussion is the hardware – most of the limelight has been shone on the warranted significance of Nokia’s recent acquisitions of NAVTEQ, Trolltech and Plazes, alongside the tangible releases of pioneering new LBS apps such as Nokia Chat .
ESPOO, Finland – Having barely had time to draw breath from the completion of the NAVTEQ and Trolltech deals, Nokia has brought another significant Internet services company under its wing. This week Nokia completed the acquisition of a small cutting-edge online outfit called Plazes, a bite-size company that offers a funky mash-up of a mobile social networking blended with context-aware location-based info and interaction.
INTERNATIONAL – No, this isn’t quack psychology, but rather news of Nokia’s new roll-out of a universal login across its multiple Internet services. Simply called Nokia Account, this is one of those subtle changes that will evolve and expand over time, stretching from the likes of Ovi to N-Gage and beyond, but more significant is what it means for us as users and looking forwards.
INTERNATIONAL – At the tail-end of last week Nokia’s acquisition of pioneering digital map maker NAVTEQ was finally rubber-stamped. Sure, mammoth deals such as this are strategic and smart on a number of levels, but what’s most interesting about Nokia’s purchase of NAVTEQ from my perspective as a user is the huge emphasis on innovation this promises with relation to the rapid evolution of location-based services.
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