Your next BMW or Mercedes will be using Nokia Maps, just as your Lumia
BMW, Mercedes, VW and Hyundai have signed a deal with Nokia to use its Location&Commerce navigation platform in their future cars, providing free offline voice-guided navigation to their drivers, just like on your Windows Phone Lumia.
This was revealed during the huge Paris Auto Show, where Nokia's navigation arm has a big booth. Besides the car makers, nav system manufacturer Garmin also said it will be employing Nokia's NAVTEQ solution, and already outed the pedestrian and mass transit section as an in-app purchase for its Android and iOS apps. Pioneer has also signed up to use Nokia's Location&Commerce navigation platform, it seems.
Bruno Bourguet, Senior Vice President, Sales and Business Development, Nokia Location & Commerce, commented on the new deals:
We believe that Nokia Location & Commerce is uniquely positioned to provide a superior consumer experience which automotive manufacturers as well as other players in the industry can deliver to their customers, and the announcements we are making this week underscore this.
Drivers today expect to be told the best way to get from A to B but they also want live traffic information, notifications of nearby places of interest and data that helps them drive better and make journeys a pleasure rather than a chore. Whether it is a daily commute or a long distance drive, we are delivering on our Connected Car vision to bring a full set of capabilities from navigation to safety to entertainment.
Drivers today expect to be told the best way to get from A to B but they also want live traffic information, notifications of nearby places of interest and data that helps them drive better and make journeys a pleasure rather than a chore. Whether it is a daily commute or a long distance drive, we are delivering on our Connected Car vision to bring a full set of capabilities from navigation to safety to entertainment.
The financial conditions under which the car and navi makers are licensing Nokia's mapping and navigation solution weren't disclosed, but we should know more at the next quarterly earnings. It's good that Nokia is adding another stream of income during the transitional period to Windows Phone 8 devices, as its cash pile is being drawn on now all too often for investors' comfort.
source: NokiaConversations
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