Amazon Says No Thanks to Google, Teams with Nokia on Maps for Kindle Fire
According to Reuters, Amazon will be adding integrated mapping to the Kindle Fire by partnering with Nokia, which means that Google Maps won’t be on yet another platform, Apple having ditched it with the iOS 6 release.
Amazon is expected to announce a new round of Kindle Fires (and possibly other devices) at a press conference this week, so the news of integrated maps functionality is timely. It’s reasonable to assume that in addition to Nokia’s maps, Amazon will have built in some of the mapping technology it acquired when it bought 3D mapping service UpNext earlier this summer.
More exciting for new Kindle Fire buyers, Reuters’ sources also indicated that the new version will have location capabilities, be it GPS or WiFi Triangulation.
A footnote to this news concerns Nokia and its slow climb back from the brink. The company has seen its share of struggles in the last year or so and its fortunes have evaporated into a shadow of what they once were. Down but not out, however, Nokia is working on a comeback via new Windows Phone devices, and keeping its other technologies--such as maps--relevant by partnering with a juggernaut like Amazon will certainly help the rebuilding effort.
Amazon is expected to announce a new round of Kindle Fires (and possibly other devices) at a press conference this week, so the news of integrated maps functionality is timely. It’s reasonable to assume that in addition to Nokia’s maps, Amazon will have built in some of the mapping technology it acquired when it bought 3D mapping service UpNext earlier this summer.
More exciting for new Kindle Fire buyers, Reuters’ sources also indicated that the new version will have location capabilities, be it GPS or WiFi Triangulation.
A footnote to this news concerns Nokia and its slow climb back from the brink. The company has seen its share of struggles in the last year or so and its fortunes have evaporated into a shadow of what they once were. Down but not out, however, Nokia is working on a comeback via new Windows Phone devices, and keeping its other technologies--such as maps--relevant by partnering with a juggernaut like Amazon will certainly help the rebuilding effort.
