“Nokia Oyj, the struggling Finnish smartphone maker, is acquiring 3-D map-technology maker Earthmine Inc. and revamping its mapping tools under a new brand name to win back customers from rivals such as Apple Inc.,” Adam Ewing and Peter Burrows report for Bloomberg.
“The Earthmine purchase will help Nokia expand in mapping, a growing business it considers key to driving smartphone sales and becoming profitable again,” Ewing and Burrows report. “The company unveiled Here, the brand for its location services and website, at an event in San Francisco yesterday, and said it has created a mapping app for Apple’s mobile devices. It will also make its map technology open to developers using Google Inc.’s Android operating system.”
MacDailyNews Take: Google Inc.’s Android operating system – from which Apple and Microsoft make multiple times more profit than Google.
Ewing and Burrows report, “The purchase of Berkeley, California-based Earthmine will give Nokia a new way to collect three-dimensional data to improve its location offering. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year. Financial details of the acquisition weren’t disclosed… Apple’s own mapping app, which replaced Google’s maps in the latest iteration of Apple’s iOS mobile software, has been criticized as being unreliable and lacking features.”
MacDailyNews Take: No matter what Apple does, no matter how much better they make Apple Maps, it will now always “suck” in the minds of a large segment of the population… The fool(s) responsible for preparing Maps for release and then releasing it with obvious issues (overblown as they are) and therefore tainting Maps forever should face severe consequences. As in: Pink slip(s). – MacDailyNews, September 28, 2012, one month and a day before the pinks slips were issued.
Ewing and Burrows report, “‘A lot of people don’t trust Apple’s maps right now,’ said Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner Inc. He said Nokia has six to 12 months to attract Apple customers to Here before Apple improves its own mapping service.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple has already dramatically improved it’s mapping service. Like we said so presciently above, they’ll never get any credit. Heckuva job, Scottie.
Ewing and Burrows report, “Michael Halbherr, head of Nokia’s location and commerce unit, said last month the market is focusing more on precision in maps after Apple was criticized over initial errors in its iPhone navigation software.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Tim Cook takes full control of Apple: John Browett and Scott Forstall out; Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi get expanded responsibilities – October 29, 2012
Nokia announces ‘HERE’ maps application for Apple’s iOS devices – November 13, 2012
