Nokia Fights Apple, Google With Mobile Maps, Payments, Ordering

Image via CrunchBase

By Diana ben-Aaron and Kati Pohjanpalo

Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, is expanding services including maps and payment applications to lure customers and combat competitors such as Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

The company opened its map services to application developers to build offerings for its Ovi store. It is already working with Facebook Inc., Deutsche Bahn, National Geographic and others on map services, Niklas Savander, executive vice president for services at the Espoo, Finland-based company, said at the Nokia World conference in Stuttgart today.

“This is a make-or-break year for Nokia,” said Ben Wood, a London-based analyst at CCS Insight. “On paper, Nokia has a collection of assets that can be blended to deliver things that Apple and Google can’t, but it’s not clear that they will deliver on that vision.”

Nokia Fights Apple, Google With Mobile Maps, Payments, Ordering - Bloomberg.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• Nokia fights back on smartphones (guardian.co.uk)