Nokia has been sliding dangerously close to oblivion for some time now. The former king of mobile phones underestimated the rapid rise of smartphones and bet too high, too long on feature phones. Now, they’re scrambling to catch up but their flagship Lumia line of phones has not been doing well.
In an effort to improve their footprint and expand the datasets available to power their new Here map application, Nokia is going to offer them to iOS users. After the disastrous launch of Apple maps on iOS 6, Nokia tried to cash in a bit by comparing their maps to the maps of the two current kings of smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S III and the iPhone 5. The resulting infographic is below.
They will also allow Android developers to play with the app. This may seem to go against their goal of helping their own smartphones stand out, but the data is the important thing here. The map technology may be superior, but without enough users out in the field sending data back, they will not be able to offer the same level of real-time and predictive data that others offer. They need to cast a wider net to make them effective and latching onto the iPhone and Android devices may be the right ticket.
It’s a risk either way, but they are not in the position to play it safe anymore. Playing it safe could be argued as the reason for their current situation. Here’s their infographic:
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Image courtesy of ValueWalk.
