Windows Phone Maps Traffic, Now Powered by Nokia

By Hubert Nguyen on 06/14/2012, filed in Home > CellPhones

Left: without the Nokia data. Right: with the Nokia data

Microsoft has officially revealed that the Windows Phone Maps traffic data would now be powered by data coming from Nokia. This means that Windows Phone users will get more data on more street, which translates to better alternative routes, which ultimately keeps you on time, and makes your boss happy, which puts food on your table (/jk).

While this announcement is “news”, it really is the continuation of what was announced earlier between Bing Maps and Nokia. The other bits of news is that this launched in many countries right away (list below), but not in every cities for each country. It’s fair to guess that large cities will be supported first, but drop a comment to tell us what you’re seeing for your own area.

Launch countries for today: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

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Microsoft: Microsoft is the company behind software like Windows, Microsoft Office and hardware like the Xbox and Kinect. The company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. MS-DOS was the product that propelled Microsoft towards success, but it is Windows and Office that made it what it is today. Microsoft is currently engaged in a number of projects, including Windows 8, Windows Phone, Xbox, Office and the Azure cloud computing platform. the large majority of desktop computers run on Windows.

Nokia: Nokia is a Finnish communications company that was the largest phone vendor (per unit) between 1988 to 2012. The company's history go back to 1871 but the Nokia that we know today (the Nokia corporation) was founded in 1967 by the merger of three Finnish companies. It is then that Nokia worked on networking equipment and was ultimately involved in the launch of the first cellular network in 1981 (Mobira Oy). Nokia because a key developer of GSM, the standard that we all know today. Although Nokia still produces a range of phones that includes entry-level handsets and Symbian smartphones, the company is counting on the Windows Phone OS to regain the share that it once had. The current flagship Windows Phone device from Nokia is the Lumia 920.

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