As Nokia takes on Google with turn-by-turn voice navigation on select smartphones, the worst nightmares of GPS device makers are coming true.
Nokia and Google are both using free GPS applications as a lure to their products. That means they're competing, which means those free applications will get better. As that happens, it'll be harder for TomTom, Garmin and Magellan to make their paid software or hardware seem attractive.
Already, Nokia claims to have one-upped Google in the crucial area of pre-loaded maps. While Google Maps Navigation requires a data connection, Ovi Maps uses a combination of pre-loaded and online maps, but can load directions even in a dead zone. When it does need to load information, Nokia says it's more efficient than Google's application, requiring only 200 KB of data over a 12-mile stretch of road compared with 2 MB for an Android phone.
Phi Beta Iota: This is way cool. Combined with the fact that Nokia now also makes a cell phone powered by ambient energy, and that we ultimately anticipate free cell phones (the value is in the transaction data and the early warning questions), this finally makes a World Brain fully possible. As Col Bruce Brunn, USMC told the Council of Defense Intelligence Producers in 1992, “I don't care how much data youprovide, if I cannot plot it on a map it is useless to me. This specific change dramatically changes the balance of power between secret and open sources, and between unilateral and multilateral information-sharing networks.
