It sounds a little like stealing someone else’s homework and then putting your name it, only slightly more expensive, but Nokia has convinced Microsoft to rebrand Bing Maps as Nokia’s own.
In an interview with Pocket-lint, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced that the word “Nokia” will soon show up on maps from Microsoft, including those on BlackBerry devices. RIM started using Bing last year. Elop went on:
“Part of the relationship we established with Microsoft is that we are clearly placing a bet on the Windows Phone platform. [In return] they are placing a bet on our location-based platform: mapping, navigation and so forth.
“In the time ahead, what you will see is, across all the Microsoft properties including Bing maps, more and more work will be done by Nokia.”
It creates some balance in what has, so far, been perceived to be a fairly one-sided relationship between Microsoft and Nokia. Remember that Microsoft already works closely with Nokia’s own Navteq on Bing’s 3D maps and StreetSide map views, and it seems to make even more sense. [PocketLint]
Image: luca.sartoni