Nokia Oyj, the struggling Finnish smartphone maker, plans to acquire 3-D map-technology maker Earthmine Inc. and is rebranding and making other moves in maps to win back customers from competitors such as Apple Inc.
The purchase of Earthmine will help Nokia expand in mapping, a growing business it considers key to driving smartphone sales and becoming profitable again. The company announced the deal and unveiled Here, the new brand for its location-services unit, at an event in San Francisco today. Nokia is also creating a Web-based mapping app for Apple’s iPhone and making its map technology open to developers using Google Inc.’s Android operating system.
“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,” Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop said in a statement.
Nokia, which started selling its flagship Lumia 920 smartphone this month, is promoting location features to differentiate itself from Apple and devices running Android software. Espoo, Finland-based Nokia bought Chicago-based map provider Navteq for $8.1 billion in 2008 and is now building a business selling maps to customers including Amazon.com Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Nikon Corp.
3-D Mapping
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.
While Nokia has been playing catch-up with its smartphones after the success of Apple’s iPhone, it continued to pump money into its location and services business and now has navigable data for at least 100 countries, up from 27 at the time of the Navteq purchase. Its new cloud-based location service will soon be available for operating systems beyond Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone software that powers Lumia smartphones.
Nokia posted its sixth straight quarterly loss last month as its third-quarter net loss widened to 969 million euros ($1.23 billion) from 68 million euros a year earlier. The adjusted operating margin at Nokia’s location and commerce unit was 14 percent on sales of 265 million euros. Elop said this quarter will “continue the transition” as Nokia brings out new Lumia models and will be “challenging.”
LiveSight
A mobile Web-based version of Nokia’s location services, which will include offline use, voice guidance and public transport information, will be available from Apple’s App Store in two weeks, pending Apple’s approval. The application programming interface will be available to Android developers early next year, Nokia said.
Lumia smartphones include City Lens, which uses so-called augmented-reality technology, allowing users to hold up their phone to see tips on stores and restaurants. City Lens will now offer LiveSight for 3-D mapping images. The phones also include driving and public transport instructions with turn-by-turn guidance and offline maps.
Nokia’s shares have tumbled 44 percent this year, trading at about their 1996 level. Nokia, once the smartphone market leader, has lost about 90 percent of its value since Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007.
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.
