10
Information-Centric Software
10.1 Standard Phones, Smart Phones and Super Phones
In December 2009 Microsoft and NAVTEQ, a digital map and location company, signed a technology agreement on the development of 3D map data and navigation software including the street-level visuals that we now take for granted when we look at Google maps. 18 months earlier Nokia had acquired Navteq for $8.1 billion dollars and started introducing phones such as the 6210 optimised for navigation applications.
Over the next two years smart phones with GPS positioning and associated navigation capabilities became increasingly common but the unique differentiation that Nokia presumably aimed to achieve through the acquisition failed to materialise and it is hard to detect any particular market advantage achieved despite the substantial investment. This is arguably a question of timing with a general rule that is not a great idea to invest in a specialist technology provider servicing a market that is being aggressively commoditised.
In 2006 we undertook an analysis of the potential of the mobile metadata market. This gives us a benchmark against which market expectation and market reality five years on can be judged.
We premised the analysis on the assertion that three types of mobile phone hardware and software form factors would evolve over time, standard phones, smart phones and super phones. Standard phones are voice dominant and/or voice/text dominant. Standard phones change the way we relate ...
