Nokia has agreed to buy out gate5, a leading supplier of mapping, routing and navigation software and services. Nokia will then be able to offer consumers maps, routing, navigation and other location based applications on its smartphones. The navigation genre for S60 3rd Edition was already busy, but an official Nokia solution, perhaps built into many devices, would be more than welcome. Press release follows...
Presenting the latest Q2 smart mobile device figures from analysts Canalys: Smartphone sales up 75% year on year; Symbian OS powers 67% of units worldwide, Windows Mobile second on 15%; standalone handheld sales down 33% year on year; Nokia sell almost six times the number of smartphones as their nearest competitor. Read on for the full Canalys press release.
Rafe's been chatting to Colin Mercer, the man behind the Nokia-sponsored 'All About N91' blog (no, nothing to do with AAS, depite the name). An interesting and open blog with no corporate agenda? A good way to bring developers, journalists and users together?
It seems that DVB-H digital TV is still some way off yet, dashing hopes that (for example) the Nokia N92 might arrive late summer. Nokia has announced yet another trial, this time in Sweden, in the last quarter of 2006. We're guessing that implementing country-wide DVB-H isn't as straightforward as we first thought. Press release follows...
Bill Ray, over at El Reg, has penned a useful editorial on the problems facing Nokia and Sony Ericsson as new users pick up version 3 handsets and find that a large proportion of 'Series 60' and 'UIQ' software doesn't work. As ever, user education is the key here and both manufacturers and developers need to spell the third party software situation out for beginners, in my opinion.
There's an interesting analysis of the mobile digital TV wars over on Open Gardens, where Ajit has obviously gone all out to try and win a Carnival of the Mobilists prize! His conclusion? Both formats will win!
Blaze, one of the leading mobile game publishers, has announced a high profile sequel to Lock 'n' Load, it's first person shoot-em-up. Lock ‘n Load 2 for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3 (as well as some older platforms) is set in fully rendered 3D environments and you can find both Nokia N80 high-resolution screenshots and the press release below.