Nokia must get its satnav to the mass market to succeed

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 | By Alex Farber

Nokia unveiled a new version of Ovi Maps which includes free turn-by-turn navigation functionality for GPS-enabled phones.

Satnav is certainly a growth market and one Nokia must have a presence in as it looks to make its devices indispensable. But the handset giant would do best to focus on achieving mass-market distribution if it’s to own the space.

Dedicated providers, such as TomTom, have established themselves for early adopters, while in the US in October Google launched its free satnav product. And the increasing proliferation of its Android phones will provide some stiff competition.

Nokia’s opportunity lies in the low and mid-range market and it must port the service, initially available only on ten GPS-enabled phones, to mass-market handsets as quickly as possible to secure a stronghold in the mid-range mainstream market.

In our upcoming feature on Nokia’s roadmap for its services (nma mobile 11 February), Rupert Englander, head of services marketing at Nokia, says it’s vital for its services to be available on as many handsets as possible to combat the success of the high-end niche players with simple scale.

If Nokia can drive down the price of functionality such as GPS and get it installed in a wide base of handsets, it still stands a chance to gain some new ground.

Have your say

Please do not complete the following form field for security reasons.

Name

E-mail

Comment

Post as

Anonymously

Display name

I have read and agree to the terms and conditions