Nokia is buying Navteq
 

I am not sure how true this is, but the people over at Engadget are pretty good at getting good information before blogging. They are reporting that Nokia pruchased navteq a big mapping company.

I am not sure they will enhance the N800, but any new products would benefit from this incorporation.

Re: Nokia is buying Navteq
 

It was formally announced today.

This is a good fit. I like it. :)

Also, analysts are beating up NOK stock for it...

Re: Nokia is buying Navteq
 

They announced their intention to purchase the company. It's not bought yet as far as I know.

Re: Nokia is buying Navteq
 

I guess this just depends on how technical you want to be. The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of both companies and all that still needs to occur is the actual closing. My understanding is that this means it is essentially a "done deal"

Re: Nokia is buying Navteq
 

I like this move from Nokia. Garmin is one of the biggest clients of Navteq and in the US, Garmin navigation devices have the best maps. This would mean same Garmin-quality maps for Nokia devices.

Now can we infer that the next Internet Tablet will have built-in GPS and navigation? ;)

Re: Nokia is buying Navteq
 

I'd wager we can infer that as much as Nokia announcing the free availability of Nokia Maps for "all N-series devices" included the N800 :-/

Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

Re: Nokia is buying Navteq
 

If that happens, I'm afraid what's going to happen Gnuite's great work on creating MaemoMapper? (Most likely Nokia Maps will not be made available for 770, thus that will still find good home for MaemoMapper...)

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

I'm pretty sure that the lack of Nokia Maps on the N800 has more to do with not castrating Navicore than because they simply don't want to do it.

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

??????????

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

Hey, why would gnuites work go to waste? It's a totally different thing from vector based mapping solution. And it's completely open. I'm really looking forward to seeing the 2.0 version soon.

Re: Nokia is buying Navteq
 

I actually prefer the maps from the Nokia navigation kit. Garmin maps look a bit cartoonish to me...

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

Navicore (a Nokia partner) purchases map data for the Middle East, South Africa, and Australia from NAVTEQ. However, Navicore purchases map data for Europe and North America from Tele Atlas. Hmmm...

Ron G

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

Google maps works fine for me via MaemoMapper. Of course I'd try out any other mapping software if it was free.

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

But they're happy castrating Navicore's Symbian business? No, it's because they're separate platforms and "Nokia Maps" was just a rebranding of an existing Symbian product (which they acquired IIRC)

Porting it to Maemo would take some quantity of work, along with a top-to-bottom recognition of Maemo as a viable platform. No, they said "all N-series devices" because one part of a big multinational company forgot about the small corner doing the NITs.

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

That's entirely possible.

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

Only as long as Google lets you break their Terms of Service (and thus the copyright of the map owners like TeleAtlas) that way.

I'm really happy Maemo Mapper now uses OpenStreetMaps as the default map set. While OSM is missing in many places, countries like UK and Netherlands are already quite complete. And this is fully open data we can do interesting things with.

Things like downloading the raw data once and then rendering tiles locally, or calculating routes without internet connection...

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

So are you saying I should reexamine Google Maps' ToS? :S

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

I'm pretty sure their ToS forbids this kind of use.

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

Unless Nokia/Navteq releases software and map data that are both free and open (highly unlikely), Maemo Mapper will always useful. It's a fun hobby, after all, even if the code is growing unwieldy. :)

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

I'm sure there is room and future for MaemoMapper, but don't you feel like Nokia stole your idea? First they did not intend the 770 to be used as mapping device at all.... but once they noticed how popular the MaemoMapper is, they realized that this is very important app, if not one of the killer apps. Like the N800 you can purchase the (expensive) Navicore kit now.

What I'm wondering, when the new tablet is released with a rumored (cough!) GPS receiver and possible mapping software, will it become free or do we just get a free ripped down teaser version? Or possibly 30-day trial, such as Rhapsody? If I want to use all the routing features, do I have to purchase a license with x amount of money?

If a purchased license is needed for real use, then I can see MaemoMapper keeping its customer base. But what if it is completely free?

Maybe we should not speculate too much... :rolleyes:

EDIT:
I did some "homework" and let's say that please keep working on MaemoMapper, Gnuite.

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

It will never be completly free. Making these maps is just to expensive. You buy software and maps and a gps receiver if the device doesn't contain one. Nokia does this on their mobilephones aswell. So why change it for the N800? They could perhaps make it free if they'd stuff the navigationsoftware full of ads.

Re: Nokia is buying Navteq
 

Before the credit crunch, you'd be right (though shareholders normally would get a vote too, they rarely vote against such mergers). Now that UBS is narrowly avoiding bankruptcy and the other big banks and desperate to back of any deals with even the hint of problems, I still wouldn't call it a done deal. Wait and see how Nokia plans on paying for it.

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

Thanks for the correction.

Re: Nokia Aquires NAVTEQ
 

Nokia Maps (the main map client they have on their phones) is actually free to download and free to use for everything except route navigation. Charging for that is how the maps make their money.

It's not totally free, but definitely semi-free.