o Navicore present in Hall 1, stand D118 during 3GSM, Barcelona,
February 13-16, 2006
o Free subscriptions to interactive services unique to Navicore with users only paying for GPRS downloads direct to their handsets
February 13, 2006 — At 3GSM in Barcelona this year, Navicore is showcasing how its new interactive services, such as real-time traffic information and safety camera downloads, significantly enrich the mobile phoned-based navigation consumer experience.
Navicore has rapidly become one of the top 3 suppliers worldwide of smartphone-based navigation systems by offering a complete GPS package, Navicore Personal, which enables consumers to turn their Symbian-based mobile phones into a fully-featured GPS navigation system.
Navicore supports all Symbian-based mobile phones — the leading OS for the next generation of handsets. Currently 11 Symbian licensees have product in development, of which 8 have handsets available today. This means some 60 different handsets available with plenty more forthcoming — so plenty of choice for the consumer today and in the future.
GPS on smartphones offers very clear benefits compared to dedicated GPS systems as most people carry a phone with them. With competitive car-based systems for example, once you’ve parked your car, that’s it, it’s useless. As you always carry your phone, it can still be used as a local area map. No more being late for meetings, family arguments about directions and wandering around lost in unfamiliar cities.
While the essential navigation information such as maps are stored on the memory media of the mobile phone, the rich interactive services significantly improve basic navigation functionality. These services utilise the connectivity of the mobile phone, extend the use of a navigator outside the car and include the followingO
Location messaging
With Navicore Personal, consumers can send location messages to share destinations, map locations and addresses with their friends. Other Navicore Personal users receive the location messages shown directly on the map of their personal navigator. In addition, Navicore users can send a snapshot of the map as a location message to any mobile phone user via a multimedia message (MMS).
Beacon
The beacon is a feature for continuously sharing the user’s own location with other Navicore Personal users. A customer is able to set the beacon to automatically send his location at a chosen interval — based on time or physical movement – to selected recipients by means of a location message. It is a great way of keeping in touch and knowing where your friends, family or loved ones are at all times.
Safety camera subscription
Mobile phones offer an easy way to update continuously changing information. With Navicore Personal 2006/1 — recently launched for the UK, Benelux and German markets – users in selected regions can automatically download an up-to-date database of safety cameras directly to their phones using GPRS. Navicore offers the actual safety camera subscription for free, with users only paying the GPRS data transfer cost set by individual mobile phone operators.
This means that mobile phone-based GPS navigators offer the simplest way of updating information thereby offering a superior user experience compared to dedicated GPS navigation devices. Once the service is activated, users can opt to receive voice proximity alerts near safety cameras while en route.
Traffic information
With Navicore Personal 2006/1, customers in select areas can receive real-time information about traffic jams, road works, incidents and other events that might influence their route. The latest traffic information is easily updated over the air, so the user is always aware of current traffic situations and this traffic information can be automatically used in routing the driver around traffic ‘hotspots’.
Interactive Points-of-interest (POIs)
Mobile phones bring a whole new level of functionality to POIs widely found in GPS navigators. Navicore Personal users can quickly interact with POIs like hotels, restaurants or golf courses on the map by making a phone call or opening a web-site link on a mobile phone’s browser for more information. This way the navigator map provides an easy and intuitive user interface for various mobile phone services.
Jussi Koski, Navicore’s, director of services, says, “We are delighted to offer consumers services to enrich their navigation experience over the air, while still keeping the essential navigation elements — such as maps and the Navicore application – on the mobile phone’s local memory to ensure the best possible usability and efficiency.”
Navicore Personal is feature packed
While navigating, Navicore Personal offers a range of functions including turn-by-turn voice guidance, estimated time of arrival, car, pedestrian and cycle modes, and different forms of display (2D, 3D and safety screen). Naturally users can receive and make phone calls at the same time.
Featuring fast mapping and routing technology, Navicore Personal has been designed to be simple to use — if you can text, you can use Navicore. The speed of route calculation is achieved through a fast proprietary routing algorithm which responds to directions taken by users immediately. This means that calculating routes of hundreds of kilometers or miles takes only a few seconds. Equally, the system keeps up with people as they drive routing them quickly should they take a detour.
