Nokia/CNN to Share Mapping Services/News

CNN will use Nokia mapping services, as it did for the recent royal wedding, and Nokia users will gain access to CNN's news.

- AP
- PR

Quote of the Week - 5/19/11

"We haven't lost a single customer."

-  Telmap Chief Marketing Officer Motti Kushnir explaining the impact of the launch of Google and Nokia's free mapping services on the company at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in Paris as quoted by Reuters.

Ovi au revoir - Nokia Ditches Ovi Brand

According to one of Nokia's blogs, the company is dropping the "Ovi" name that was used to brand their location-based services. “We have made the decision to change our service branding from Ovi to Nokia. By centralizing our services identity under one brand, not two, we will reinforce the powerful master brand of Nokia and unify our brand architecture – while continuing to deliver compellingopportunities and experiences for partners and consumers alike,” said Nokia EVP and CMO Jerry DeVard.

Nokia has experienced a significant drop in their marketshare of cellular phones and lags others in the smartphone market. Some say the entire brand is tarnished. I'm not sure how that carried over at all to the Ovi brand which was more or less disconnected to Nokia anyway.

Source: Nokia Tech will Power the Bing Maps Infrastructure

Greg Sterling reports, but did not get official confirmation from either organization, Nokia tech will power the Bing Maps infrastructure. There have been many rumors regarding NAVTEQ in recent weeks from folks outside the industry, but Greg's on the inside, so I think this is worth sharing.

However my lunch companion argued unequivocally that Nokia Maps would effectively replace almost everything that Microsoft had developed over the past several years in terms of the Bing Maps infrastructure. This was shocking because Microsoft has invested hundreds of millions of dollars (if not billions) in creating a viable competitor to Google Maps. Most recently the company has been promoting its roll out of new hi-resolution aerial imagery on a global basis.

I said I couldn’t believe Microsoft would agree to swap in Navteq for the guts of its own system. Yet my lunch guest argued that Microsoft’s role would mostly center on the Bing Maps UI — ironically not unlike Yahoo’s relationship to Microsoft search results — everything else would be powered by Nokia.

And there was another very interesting remark. He asserted that Google’s unwillingness to agree to a co-mingling of Google Maps and Nokia Maps or substitution of Nokia Maps on the back end was one of the sticking points that prevented Nokia and Google from coming to terms.

Search Engine Land via @atanas

The gory details of how Nokia's mapping portfolio would work in the new Microsoft/Nokia deal announced earlier this year was not completely clear (APB coverage).

TomTom and Nokia News

Dutch navigation equipment maker TomTom (TOM2.AS) said sales of its flagship product fell 16 percent in the first quarter and cut its revenue forecast as it sees an even bigger contraction in the global market in 2011.

Reuters reports that the company had expected 10-15% contraction in sales of PNDs worldwide but now revises that to 15-20%.

- Reuters

Nokia is laying off 4000 and sending 3000 to Accenture to work on Symbian. There are rumors (phone scoop) about a reorg and refocus for NAVTEQ but nothing announced yet.

- AP