Free Mobile Mapping Navigation Service amAze funded by mobile advertising

Rating: amaze (ing) grace

amAze is a free mobile mapping service for mass market mobile phones. Created by LocatioNet Systems the service application for Java devices installs local mobile search info, mapping and navigation on all devices in Europe or North America.

Key amAze features include:
Voice guidance for mobile map finding via Bluetooth
Visual search via maps and guidance
Mobile search features for addresses and yellow pages
Free maps.

From the press release:
“amAze is a must-have mobile application for all consumers,” said Ofer
Tziperman, President of LocatioNet. “Navigation and the ability to
search for local information are tools that we all need regular, almost
daily, access to. Our trial phase has shown us how keen people are to
download and use amAze.”

What we think
Maps for some strange reason are big on mobile. Users enjoy finding things searching for locations and viewing Google Maps or similar services. Hence, this free service could be popular. The introduction of advertising is an interesting business model. The Yellow Pages already seems to be a business partner and searching for places and for maps usually help advertisers with relevancy. For example, if a mobile user types in Pizza London. It’s pretty clear that they are in London and are hungry.

There is no mention of who pays the data charges for this service, which means its probably the consumer. This service would be better if there was a way for advertisers or involved business to take the whole cost of using amAze away from the consumer – be it data transfer costs, SMS costs or click to call costs.

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