More than maps
Digital representations of the real world don't just drive our use of smartphones and tablets; they're also key to some promising technologies (like driverless cars) and every location-enabled startup. "We think there have been three big shifts in what people were asking online," says Hans Peter Brondmo, Nokia's head of new product innovation. "The first was 'what'--Google won that battle. The second question was 'who,' and Facebook won that. The next big question is 'where,' and that's what we're fighting to become, the Where company."
To the end of the earth
The fight means that the world is now better mapped than at any time in the history of civilization. Nokia's cartographic wizards assert that its maps cover more countries, receive inputs from more sources (80,000 data feeds), and are updated more quickly (up to 2.4 million times a day) than those of any other service. In 2008, Google launched Ground Truth, a massive project that uses a fleet of airplanes, automobiles, and data collected from public and private agencies to create a proprietary location database of 40 countries around the world. There are product innovations such as photo-realistic 3-D maps, 360-degree panoramic views, street views, and transit and turn-by-turn directions.
One map's failure is another map's fortune
Maps also factor into Google's highest-profile current and future projects. In the wake of Apple's debacle, Google Maps has become a key selling point for choosing an Android phone over an iPhone.
Nokia, too, has seized on Apple's failed launch by releasing an iOS app, branded Here Maps, to woo iPhone users disaffected by Apple Maps. "We would love for iOS users to be more aware of Nokia," says Brondmo. "Maybe they'll look at our great maps app and next time around decide to take a harder look at our Lumia phone.
mms://203.69.69.81/studio/20130712ada51c0a721f991ecb299900a0872ebc8c6f2170b0357a41ebe92ca1c39417b663b.wma
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