In January 2009 Vodafone made what seemed like a good investment buying mapping software maker Wayfinder for about $30 million. A year later it’s looking like a pretty awful deal in the wake of free navigation solutions from both Google and Nokia. Facing the inevitable, Vodafone is closing Wayfinder saying, “We could not charge for something that others gave away for free.”

Vodafone has also invested several million additional dollars in Wayfinder, so it can’t be easy to walk away. It’s unlikely they’d do so without being sure they could not compete with Nokia’s Ovi Maps. This really isn’t much of a surprise, especially considering Nokia’s huge presence in Europe. Google Navigation isn’t even available yet in Europe, but clearly Vodafone wasn’t going to sit around and wait for two free solutions to start eating their lunch.

This may be the eventual fate of all the carrier branded navigation apps. Considering the poor quality of many of them, that might not be a bad thing. Would access to a free navigation app from Google or Nokia sway you in your next phone purchase?

Nobody really talks a whole lot about Nokia anymore, not with sexy smartphones like the Motorola Droid and Google's Nexus One stealing all the spotlight. Part of the problem is that Symbian, even though it dominates the market, hasn't kept pace with other OSes. Look for that to change with Symbian 3.

According to Nokia, "it is about renewal" with the upcoming OS and the new phones that will be built around it. Symbian 3 should be "functionally complete" by the end of Q1. It will include a more polished UI that's easier to use, an improved homescreen, a podcast manager, and a bit more pep, among other features. According to David Rivas, a vice president at Nokia, Symbian 3 will help get his company back on track.

And as for Android? Rivas claims his company has a more "open" stance around Symbian and MeeGo than Google does with Android.

"Anyone can go to the Symbain website and see what features will be coming months in advance," Rivas explained. "Show me where you can do that with Android."

Image Credit: New York Times

Could there be a love affair brewing between Intel and Nokia? Quite possibly, as it would appear the two are collaborating on a new mobile chip for use in smartphones and netbooks.

Officially, the two have teamed up to tackle Linux development, but reading between between the lines, ArsTechnica thinks there's a good chance they're up to more than that. As the rumor goes, Intel and Nokia are busy piecing together a system on a chip (SoC) called Penwell. The rumor is at least plausible when you consider Intel's Atom architecture.

"Intel's 32nm Atom core, codenamed Medfield, will leave plenty of 'uncore' available on an SoC for all sorts of third-party IP blocks. [Charlie] Demerjian [at SemiAccurate] suggests that once such IP block could be the HSPA/3G modem that Intel licensed from Nokia last summer," ArsTechinca writes.

But that isn't the only clue. Nokia doesn't seem to want to talk about the chip that's supposed to power the successor to the N900, saying only that it is continuing to develop on the OMAP3, which is the same chip used in the N900. Given the availability of next-gen ARM parts, it seems unusual that Nokia would stick with OMAP3.

Of course this is all speculation and could end up much ado about nothing, but what if it isn't?

Image: desinformado.com

Intel and Nokia today revealed a new operating system that the two plan to put on smartphones, netbooks and tablets.

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Intel and Nokia Join Forces to Make Linux OS

No point in saving any ammunition for tomorrow: all out war means just that--all out. Nokia has opened up a third front in its legal battle with Apple with a second complaint filed in U.S. federal courts, this one alleging infringement on “implementation patents” held by Nokia.

This lawsuit argues that Apple’s implementation technology in the iPhone, from camera sensors to touchscreens, treads on Nokia’s intellectual property. This is in addition to an initial lawsuit about infringement on GSM patents, and an unfair trade complaint filed with the International Trade Commission (ITC).

Whether Nokia’s move is one of strength or weaknesses isn’t yet clear. This third filling, along with the request to the ITC to ban imports on Apple mobile products (including laptops), might be Nokia flexing its muscles, signalling to Apple just how serious it is about these various complaints. Or, it might be Noika going for broke--firing off everything in their legal arsenal in the hopes of wounding Apple enough to force a favorable settlement.

Round two in the battle may be the first to be resolved. Nokia expects the ITC to decide in 30 days whether to take up Nokia’s unfair trade complaint.

Image Credit: Engadget

Nokia has thrown another punch in its patent infringement fight with Apple, filing a new complaint against the maker of the iPhone with the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC). In this complaint Nokia alleges Apple’s iPhones, iPods, and computers infringe on seven Nokia patents. The filing with the USITC, an independent federal agency, expands Nokia’s claims against Apple to include unfair trade practices.

Last October Nokia filed its first complaint against Apple, in a federal court in Delaware, alleging the iPhone infringed on ten of Nokia’s patents. Apple countered Nokia’s filing with one of its own, claiming Nokia was violating 13 of Apple’s iPhone patents.

In a statement, Nokia said, “While our litigation in Delaware is about Apple's attempt to free-ride on the back of Nokia investment in wireless standards, the [US]ITC case filed today is about Apple's practice of building its business on Nokia's proprietary innovation.”

Nokia’s efforts to protect it’s $57.5 billion research and development investments, and 11,000 patents, comes at a time when Apple has surpassed Nokia in quarterly mobile phone profits, garnering $1.6 billion last quarter compared to $1.1 billion for Nokia.

Image Credit: Wayne Short/Wikimedia Commons

If nothing else, Nokia is owed kudos for having the brass to admit that it had failed to present a reasonable challenge to Apple's dominance in the mobile app business. That's something the No. 1 phone maker isn't taking lightly, and the company said it plans to release a "refreshed" Ovi Store next spring.

The efforts to completely redevelop its mobile app store will largely be drivin by criticisms of Ovi on sites like Twitter.

"We have screens up in our offices running the Twitter feeds all day long," said George Linardos, head of products at Nokia's media group. "It's like sitting there and getting punched in the face. But when we make improvements we see the impact instantly."

Whether or not the world's largest cell phone maker can realistically take on Apple in the mobile app space remains to be seen, but you have to admire the company's candid honesty and willingness to listen to customer feedback.

As such, some of the new features being planned include in-application payments, an overhauled interface that should make apps easier to discover, and faster operation. And looking longer-term, Nokia envisions the Ovi Store including recommendations based on friends' app purchases and more localized content.

Image Credit: modmyi.com

Nokia’s market share in the US has been eroding continuously over the past few years. Now the phone maker has announced that their North American flagship stores will be closing in early 2010. The shops, which only opened a few years ago, are located in Chicago and New York.

Nokia says they intend to rely more on larger retail chains and carriers to sell phones. Nokia would disagree that the stores are being closed because of cost cutting. According to a Nokia statement, “The Flagship stores were originally conceived to inspire and educate consumers to the benefits of mobility through an innovative retail experience, and to broaden the appeal of the Nokia brand… consumer awareness in the U.S. has grown substantially.” So you see, it’s not that the stores were too costly, it’s that they had simply fulfilled their purpose. Right…

Many of Nokia’s handsets fail to ever make it to an American carrier. If they’re serious about their strategy to rely more on carriers, it might be a good idea to strike whatever deals they can to bring devices like the N900 to customers at a subsidized price. The world is bigger than the US, but Nokia can’t continue to ignore the bulk of US consumers that won’t ever buy an unsubsidized phone.

The LCD price fixing shenanigans continue, at least according to Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker who has filed suit against Samsung, LG, AU Optronics, and other LCD manufacturers over allegedly colluding to fix prices, Bloomberg reports.

Filed on November 25, the lawsuit is based on both federal and state antitrust claims and makes essentially the same arguments as AT&T did last month when it filed a suit in the same court, also against LCD manufacturers. According to Nokia, Samsung and more than six other LCD makers conspired to raise the price of displays.

"The liquid-crystal displays were incorporated into Nokia mobile wireless handsets," according to the complaint. The conspiracy "artificially inflated the price of liquid crystal displays ultimately incorporated into LCD products purchased by Nokia, causing Nokia to pay higher prices."

Each of the suits direct the court's attention to a U.S. Justice Department investigation of display price fixing. Hitachi, who pleaded guilty in March in the inquiry, is one of the defendants named in Nokia's suit, but not AT&T's.

Where is half of the world's mobile data bandwidth disappearing? The avaricious Apple iPhone is devouring more than half of the global mobile data bandwidth, according to a new report published by mobile advertising company AdMob. The report details the mobile internet usage trend during the month of October. This is the first time that the iPhone's share of the global mobile internet traffic has gone past 50 percent. It stood at 43 percent at the end of September.

The iPhone is almost performing out of its skin when it comes to hogging mobile data bandwidth. This is because its share of the global smartphone market is just a third of its contribution to the world's mobile internet traffic. Symbian smartphones came in a distant second in October with a 25% share, down 4% from the previous month. While RIM and Blackberry smartphones lost a bit of their share, Android's share rose to 11% during the month.

Image Credit: AdMob