The company has announced its intentions to combine its service expertise with location based tech.
Nokia has now announced that bringing its existing services expertise with the latest in 3D geolocation technology will bring the company the capability for offering profound insight into the performance and traffic trends being experienced over mobile networks.
This move will be the outcome of a number of different acquisitions that Nokia has recently made.
Over the last few months, Nokia Corporation has absorbed a number of different companies, among which the most recent was the 3D geolocation technology company called Nice Systems Ltd. That business provides surveillance and security and is based in Israel. Nokia, based in Finland, has stated that this acquisition would help them to better the optimization and planning of mobile networks.
The purchase of the 3D geolocation technology could also help to enhance the tools and expertise of Nokia Networks.
By obtaining this location based technology, the company feels that its Nokia Networks business will be able to build on its technical expertise and tools as well as to dive much more deeply into the development of capabilities within that ecosystem.
According to the Nokia Networks head of network planning and optimization of global services, Dennis Lorenzin, “Advanced network planning and optimization services are at the forefront of Nokia Networks’ strategic services to mobile operators. The evolution of small cells and LTE necessitates more accurate 3D geolocation capabilities. Nokia Networks intends to enhance this unique solution in order to offer superior services to our customers, regardless of which network gear they use.
Dror Nemirovsky, the head of ecosystem venture at Nokia Networks, explained that the company intends to create an Israeli competence center and will further grow its future portfolio based on 3D modeling while it boosts its automation services.
Recently, the Finnish company also took in SAC wireless, which was a network deployment and infrastructure solutions provider based in the U.S. This move was made to help to enhance Nokia Networks’ market share within the network implementation space. It was meant as a complement to the company’s existing expertise held in-house.
Geolocation technology using searches and advertising are taking off in the country, says TechNavio.
A technology focused global research firm called TechNavio Research has now released a report that has shown that the increasing penetration of smartphones and other mobile devices has fueled a considerable growth in the American location based marketing and search market.
The firm has forecasted that from last year through 2018, there will be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.01.
Location based marketing uses a mobile device owner’s specific position – as reported by that device – to promote brands, products and services that are in close proximity to that individual. Over the last few years, it has increasingly become the standard for smartphones and tablets to be GPS enabled, and those devices are achieving greater popularity among consumers. In the United States, it was reported, last year, that there was a 65 percent penetration rate for smartphones that were enabled with GPS technology.
It is expected that by 2016, over 90 percent of devices will be capable of supporting location based marketing tech.
According to the TechNavio vice president, Faisal Ghaus, “The huge number of smartphones being used in the US acts as a catalyst for the incremental adoption of mobile LBS applications such as location discovering, friend finder and location-based advertising, shopping and networking.”
Companies have recognized that there is potential value in providing consumers with advertising that is based on their specific location and have been increasingly adopting location based services in order to appeal to those shoppers.
Among the large businesses currently testing campaigns that employ this technology are PepsiCo Inc., Starbucks Corp. , and L’Oreal Inc. The latter of those companies has already launched a pilot campaign to test the cost effectiveness of this technology when compared to other electronic media as well as traditional print advertising.
Ghaus pointed out that as location based marketing costs are relatively low when compared to many other forms of advertising, “enterprises are witnessing cost benefits from related marketing activities and transferring these benefits to their customers.” This can also assist businesses in better understanding their customers so that more relevant and attractive deals can be offered.
