Kelsey-nokia

Presentation by Ralph Eric Kunz, heads Nokia multimedia group

Kunz is described as in charge of in charge of search and location-based experiences.

NOTES OF HIS TALK:

800 million people use a Nokia device daily. "These are media devices that are brought to users attention and we just need to think about how we utilize them for local." More and more devices are embedded with experiences.

The search experience has to be visible on the front of the device and be very good performing.

"The holy grail: location-aware content," he says. Search is the main entry to location-aware content. Build an ecosystem of branded content. Capture the tail -- user-generated content.

The've started with location-based experiences -- over 180 million Nokia phones will ship or download in 2008 with the capability. What they are doing -- called Smart2Go -- already is localized in 40 languages, available in 50 countries, with local search engines connected in 20 or 25 countries. Users in 140 countries are using it and about 450 system operators.

The growth rate is 26% month-over-month. About 65% of users access a mapping function. "That's critical," he says. "The map-to-search experience is a fundamental thing on the mobile device."

Key advice: "If you are thinking about doing something in mobile, you have to make sure it works in this magical triangle of PC, online and mobile," says Kunz. "It won't work for you if it is just mobile."

Why hasn't location-based mobile already taken off?

Because people didn't understand it, the installed based hasn't be there. But now everyone understands the search operation on the PC/web. And personal navigation is now one of the boom markets in consumer electronics. Auto navigation is a compelling experience. Also, the cost of a GPS chip is now under two dollars. And for location-based mobile to work, the phone has to be GPS-enabled.

He talks about how the big winners in information technology are always those entrepreneurs who combine a mixture of a new technology with business-model disruption. An example was Google, which combined the new technology of page-rank sorting, with the service of free web search, and the business model of advertising volume aggregation. Another example: Skype, combining the technology of scalable voice-over-IP, with the service of a free VOIP webclient and the business-model of callout volume.

Key learning: That so-called off-board solutions -- server-based maps -- won't work. Because connectivity isn't yet ubiquitous, the consumer doesn't want to be in a place where they can't get a map because they don't have a connection. So the phone device has to have enough smarts and memory to store map tiles when it has connectivity for later use.

Nokia's Smart2Go keeps track of where you are located via your GPS-enabled phone and downloads current tiles of the area around you on a streaming basis automatically. So when you go inside a building that has no connectivity, you can get the map of where you are anyway. "The off-board becomes an on-board solution," says Kunz.

=Business model: Generate community through free maps

• Business model: Generate community through free maps
• Then derive income through upselling and ads

Revenue streams:

• navigation
• transactions
• premium content
• advertising

Rapid convergence of previously disconnected user experiences

• online mapping, routing and local search
• Standalone navigation devices
• connected mobile deivces with location-based experiences