Nokia introducing HERE as a new location and mapping service

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Nokia introducing HERE as a new location and mapping service

Nokia extends its service across devices and operating systems
Nokia announces new partnership with Mozilla and planned acquisition of 3D capture company, earthmine
San Francisco, California - Today Nokia introduced HERE, the first location cloud to deliver the world's best maps and location experiences across multiple screens and operating systems. With the new brand, HERE, Nokia aims to inspire a new generation of location services and devices that make the mobile experience more personally significant for people everywhere.

"People want great maps, and with HERE we can bring together Nokia's location offering to deliver people a better way to explore, discover and share their world," said Nokia President and CEO Stephen Elop. "Additionally, with HERE we can extend our 20 years of location expertise to new devices and operating systems that reach beyond Nokia. As a result, we believe that more people benefit from and contribute to our leading mapping and location service."

Pushing location beyond Nokia
To further extend its location services, Nokia is launching a maps application for iOS under the HERE brand. Based on HTML5, it will include offline capabilities, voice-guided walk navigation, and public transport directions. The application is scheduled to be available for free download from Apple's App Store in the coming weeks.
Nokia further announced a strategic partnership with Mozilla to bring new location experiences to the Firefox OS. Nokia plans to debut a mobile Web version of HERE Maps for the new Firefox OS next year. The companies are working together to give people the best mapping experience on Firefox OS.
"Mozilla is a leader in HTML5, building the Web as a platform for developing compelling applications, and location is a key part of that platform," said Jay Sullivan, Mozilla Vice President of Products. "We are excited to work with Nokia as the combination of Firefox OS and HERE's location platform provides rich possibilities for mobile application developers to create amazing experiences for users."
Nokia also demonstrated an Android OS-based reference application and announced plans for the availability of a HERE SDK for Android OEMs in early 2013. This is aimed at enabling partners to create location-based applications for Android devices with Nokia's leading content.

Innovating modern mapmaking
To advance the 3D capabilities of HERE, Nokia announced the planned acquisition of Berkeley, Calif. company earthmine. The company's reality capture and processing technologies will become integral parts of HERE's 3D map making capabilities.

Nokia expects the transaction to close by the end of 2012.
"Maps are hard to get right - but location is revolutionizing how we use technology to engage with the real world," said Michael Halbherr, Executive Vice President of Location & Commerce and responsible for the HERE brand. "That's why we have been investing and will continue to invest in building the world's most powerful location offering, one that is unlike anything in the market today."
Using LiveSight(TM) to see more of the real world
As part of its announcement, Nokia introduced LiveSight(TM), a technology based on a highly accurate, 3D map of the world. LiveSight(TM) provides the most precise and intuitive augmented reality experience and uses a phone's camera viewfinder to make discovering the world as easy as lifting up a phone. Nokia City Lens, which was developed exclusively for Nokia Lumia devices, is the first application providing a LiveSight-enabled experience.
"Establishing a new brand is the right move for Nokia in the map and location business. Nokia's assets in this space are world class. We believe mapping and location will be increasingly important to developing next generation devices and services across a wide array of segments," said Crawford Del Prete, Executive Vice President and Head of worldwide research at IDC.

CNN and Nokia multi-level international collaboration plans

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CNN and Nokia multi-level international collaboration plans

CNN's news content to be supported by Nokia's mapping services

Espoo, Finland - CNN and Nokia today announced a multi-level international collaboration where Nokia becomes a key part of CNN's roster of mapping providers, delivering its rich mapping services to the international news network. The collaboration harnesses the companies' strengths in global newsgathering, user-generated content, mapping technologies, and location-based services. The collaboration debuted with the use of Nokia's 3D Maps across CNN's platforms in its recent coverage of the British royal wedding.

"This collaboration is a great fit for us as both companies share a similar philosophy on connecting people beyond borders through the combination of compelling news content and highly sophisticated technology," said Tony Maddox, Managing Director, CNN International. "The international scale of each of our businesses makes the scope of the collaboration particularly exciting."

"Nokia and CNN share the belief that news is now mobile, powerfully democratic, and can immediately be shared by people around the world," said Jerri DeVard, Chief Marketing Officer, Nokia. "We are pleased that CNN wants to use Nokia's innovative mapping services for its international news platforms, and we are excited to work with CNN to deliver a compelling news service to users of Nokia phones."

The collaboration also includes the CNN App for Nokia which provides mobile access to CNN's world, business, sport, entertainment and technology reporting, as well as live streaming video. The app also allows users to share CNN's news via their own social channels, and participate in the reporting process with direct access to CNN's participatory news community, iReport. The CNN App for Nokia is available in Ovi Store.