Nokia on Nav:  Funding should be the Same as The Internet - Free/Ad Subsidized

The digital camera industry took a hit when mobile OEMs starting shipping cameras in phones.  Now the PND industry may take the same hit unless they start making multi-purpose phones rather than dedicated devices.  Add to this pressure a Nokia pursuit of free/ad subsidized Nav services inline with Internet business models, and other mobile Nav app providers beyond the PND players are likely to suffer as well unless they adapt. 

In this shakeout the winners are chipset providers, mobile OEMs, ad inventory aggregators, and consumers.  The losers are PND players, mobile app providers focused on fee-based Nav, and Carriers.       

This entry was contributed by Jonathan Spinney