Nokia and bit-side GmbH announced today that Nokia is acquiring all bit-side assets. Bit-side is a Berlin software company that specialises in social and location-based services for mobile. Nokia plans to use bit-side to boost development for mobile Nokia Maps.
From the release:
“Acquiring bit-side enables Nokia to offer consumers the world-leading mobile location applications, such as Maps, along with routing and navigation at an accelerated speed” said Michael Halbherr, vice president and head of social location, Nokia. “Nokia has been working with bit-side since 2007, and bit-side has become a strategic development partner to Nokia. Nokia believes that context plays a pivotal role in the evolution of the Internet. To make the Internet truly personal, Nokia is building the ability for people to always know where they are and what is around them. Moreover, to know where their friends are and what they are doing and how they are feeling. Nokia calls this social location.”
“Joining Nokia, the world leader in mobility, is an exciting opportunity for us,” says Thom Brenner, managing director & partner, bit-side GmbH. “Our small team has brought many innovative mobile products to life and being part of Nokia will be like a catalyst to this. We share Nokia’s visions, on social and location related services and the future of their enabling technologies.”
What we think?
The inevitable merger of mobile devices and sat-nav draws ever closer, so now’s a good time for Nokia to really push this. There’s a lot of competition here, though. Navteq are moving into the area, and Googles award winning Google Maps for Mobile has been around for a while. Nokia will really want to excel at this if they want to attract any attention.
