The GPS Insider

Long time no blog. I know, I’ve been a bad boy. Last month I attended Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the largest gathering of mobile execs (and wanna-bes) outside of next week’s CTIA. I have lots of memories of the week, from the 2-hour registration queue to the stunning Gaudi architecture to $600/night for a second-rate hotel (damn you, Federal Reserve for that exchange rate). But the most poignant moment of the event was standing in the middle of Hall 8 between the Nokia and Motorola booths. Nokia was busting at the seams with people, having just launched 4 new GPS-enabled devices: the N96, N78, 6210 Navigator and 6220 Classic. Not to mention Nokia Maps 2.0. I glanced to my left and the Motorola booth was nearly empty, a sad sight for me as an ex-Motorolan. I wandered over there and asked one of the Moto employees if they had any GPS phones, “you know, like the ones over at the Nokia booth that you can geo-tag photos with.” She made no effort to put any spin on the fact they they had absolutely no devices in that category. So I’m not entirely shocked that the company just spun out the handset division, prepping for a possible sale. But some of the recent dirty laundry is still eye-opening (Motorola insider tells all about the fall of a technology icon). As a friend recently remarked, Motorola and Ed Zander will likely soon be immortalized in an HBS case study…

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Don’t you love the drama? Less than a month after Tom Tom finalized a $2.5B bid for Tele Atlas, Garmin trumps with a $3.3B offer. This puts the Tele Atlas board in a very uncomfortable position. The strategic fit with Tom Tom is much stronger - both companies are based in the Netherlands and most of Tom Tom’s devices use TA data. But the board has a fiduciary responsibility to TA shareholders and would have no choice but to accept the new offer, if the bid is indeed apples to apples. On the other side of the table, Garmin almost exclusively uses Navteq data. I’m not sure how deeply integrated the data is, but it won’t be a trivial process to change horses. And here’s the kicker - Garmin won’t make the offer official until December 4th, the same say the Tom Tom bid expires.

How’s this for a possible soap opera: Tom Tom loses Tele Atlas and switches to Navteq for licensing data. Garmin gets TA, overpays and has a nice goodwill write-off in a few years. Nokia ends up the winner, despite a mammoth $8.1B price for Navteq, since mobile LBS is the future. Meanwhile, Google launches an open source mapping program that makes all of this consolidation seem laughable in hindsight. It could happen…

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So much for the “several weeks” window for the N95-3. Engadget is reporting that the phone is available immediately in Nokia’s New York and Chicago flagship stores for $699. No word on an AT&T agreement…this might not be a good sign for a subsidized version.

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Engadget claims that the N95-3, the U.S. version of the popular GPS-capable phone with American 3G support, is scheduled to hit shelves in the next two weeks. And by American 3G, we’re talking about AT&T (850 / 1900MHz bands of HSDPA). The N95 has been putting up solid numbers in Europe and Nokia looks to be pushing this phone to other regions now. I’ve heard rumors (from very reliable sources) that Telstra will be launching a version Down Under. And getting AT&T to subsidize one in the U.S. would be a very good thing.

[via Engadget Mobile]

data sheet at Nokia

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Following its February launch alongside the original N95, Nokia has now rolled out the next version of its Nokia Maps navigation software. The new application seems to center around customer-requested improvements, including a new data counter, revamped user interface, improved search capabilities, and client software capable of transferring maps ten times as quickly as the original. Nokia is also taking the remainder of 2007 to update its coverage, eventually offering over 150 countries’ worth of maps with 50 of them enabled for navigation.

Speaking this week at the Canalys Navigation Forum in Barcelona, Michael Halbherr, head of location-based services at Nokia (from the Gate5 acquisition) shared insights about their plans for updates and improvements for Nokia Maps. Launched in February of this year, the Nokia Maps mobile application and the Nokia Map Loader for PCs have each been downloaded over 1 million times. Halbherr also mentioned some juicy usage statistics. Nokia Maps has been activated by 100% of N95 users: 68% have tried Nokia Maps at least 14 times, 95% have established a GPS fix, 94% have generated packet data with maps, 44% of users have used it for actual navigation, and of those users 67% used it for driving a car, 57% for walking, 44% standing still and 7% for cycling or biking.

Check out Nokia Maps

[via GPS Business News]

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I recently profiled an interesting N95 mod that lets you entertain your kids in the car. Mobileburn’s kloves2fly doesn’t have a car (but could somehow afford a $700 phone) and was never able to use the N95’s in-built GPS for navigation. Until now. He mounted his N95 to the handlebars on his bike using only $8 worth of supplies and now gets to pedal in style while texting, listen to tunes and navigating. He’s now looking for an adapter to charge his phone while riding. Where’s Motorola’s Ed Zander when you need him?

Read more at MobileBurn

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Most folks in the U.S. who have shelled out $750 for an unlocked N95 have been disappointed by the slow EDGE data speeds. But according to a rumor from GigaOM it looks like Nokia is prepping a version with HSDPA, the American flavor of 3G. The updated N95 is expected to be released by a U.S. carrier (all signs point to AT&T) in September.

The phone, which sports a 5 megapixel camera, integrated GPS and WiFi, would be a hit in the States for the anti-iPhone crowd. To date, only two GSM phones with built-in GPS have been offered by U.S. carriers: RIM’s BlackBerry 8800 and HP’s iPAQ 69xx series.

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Blogger Eirik Solheim writes about how he used a Nokia N95 to entertain his kids in the car:

I simply connected it to my son’s small DVD screen. Wow! Seven inches of pure joy for the small ones in the back. Changing view, colors and the language of the navigation voice keeps them happy. You need a Nokia with video out, a navigation system running on your nokia, a DVD system or screen for the kids with video in and a couple of cables. And some slightly geeky kids.

Check out the detailed step-by-step if you’re interested in pacifying your kids in the car without that Spongebob Squarepants DVD.

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David Watkins, Multimedia Sales Director Nokia APAC, told ZDNet Australia that GPS will work its way from niche to mainstream and will one day be as ubiquitous as the cameraphone.

“GPS is not just for technology leaders or people juggling their life, it’s really for anyone,” Watkins said. “It’s a trend you will be seeing more of.” The next wave of GPS-enabled Nokia phones are expected to be announced this September.

Read the ZDNet article

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Motorola’s recent stumble has enabled Samsung to grab second-place in global market share. Samsung sold 37.4 million handsets in the second quarter, compared with Motorola’s self-projected volume of 35 million to 36 million. Samsung’s unit volume is up nearly 50% over the year-ago quarter. Samsung, like Sony Ericsson, has capitalized on Motorola’s weakness in the European market to gain share.

Of course, Samsung and Sony Ericsson both experienced erosion of ASPs as market share climbed. Both should pay close attention to Motorola’s recent experience in chasing market share at the expense of margins.

[via RCR Wireless]

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