Here: bulking up on maps
Nokia’s Naviteq business unit has announced a number of initiatives in mapping under the name ‘Here’. It is going to launch a 3D product to compete with Google and Apple, launching an iOS application and a software development kit for Android applications. The cost of using the API if competitive enough could see developers moving away from Google’s own mapping solution. If you are developing location-based applications Nokia Maps is worthwhile considering alongside Google Maps and OpenStreetMaps.
This expansion could also be considered to be an implicit admission that the Windows Phone eco-system may not be big enough on its own to support Naviteq any time soon, which begs the question does Nokia have enough runway left to transition successfully to Windows Phone and regain much of its past market dominance?
