Nokia Buys 3D Mapping Company Earthmine, Kick offs Here mapping service

Nokia has announced the buyout of California based real-time 3D rendering firm, Earthmine as part of its efforts in improving the mapping services in its smartphone devices. At the same time, no details have been disclosed by both parties with respect to the financial terms of the deal. 

John Ristevski, Earthmine Co-chief Executive was stated as saying, “We are very excited to be joining Nokia – a company with a huge presence and vision in mapping.” He also stated this buyout would help them realize their goal of indexing the world in 3D. 

The news first broke out when Nokia introduced a mapping and location-based services platform that would power the internet cloud to function across a range of devices and operating systems. The new service from Nokia is dubbed ‘Here’. Stephen Elop, Nokia Chief Executive commented that ‘Here’ platform is designed to fulfil the demands of people who are looking out for advanced Mapping services.

He also expressed hope that this new platform can offer a better way to explore, discover and share their world. Nokia is also reportedly working on new ‘Here’ map application tailored for iPhone, iPad and other devices running on iOS operating system. 

Michael Halbherr, Nokia Executive Vice President however threw some caution to the wind saying Maps is an application which is tough to get it right. Apple had taken a lot of blame for their Maps application some time back. At the same time he also considers location based services and mapping services are to be in much demand in the future.

He asserted that Nokia would continue to invest in Maps application and related services to tap this growing demand for location based services. Nokia believes it’s new ‘Here’ service would help the company extending their 20 years of location expertise to newer devices and operating systems that spans beyond Nokia.