We heard rumors of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) possibly teaming up with Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) to offer GPS services in their Kindle line of tablets. Now, according to TNW, the rumors have proven to be true. Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will be collaborating on the GPS technology, which will be based on Nokia’s Location Platform.
This is Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s way of further distancing itself from its main rival in the lower end of the tablet market. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has long been a target for Amazon in terms of tablet sales. The new Kindle Fire line from Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) are a direct cut into Google’s market share of tablet sales. By utilizing Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) for the new mapping system in the Kindle Tablet, Amazon has cut ties to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s GPS system, and further removed themselves from their rival.
While these rumors are not really a surprise, some people breathed a welcome sigh of relief on receiving the news via a statement from Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK)’s spokesperson, Dr. Sebastian Kurme. Kurme validated the rumors by saying that Amazon’s decision is “further proof point that our competence in this space is a key differentiation, also for other leading players in the industry, to offer great location consumer experiences.” Although Google maps is far more popular than Nokia’s Location Platform, this joint effort with Amazon will help Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) to gain more fans. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Bing both use Nokia’s service for their locative search queries.
Amazon has already offered their Maps API to developers, in order to help integrate location data in the new Kindle apps. The fact that they chose Nokia to provide their location shouldn’t really be much of a surprise, as it was already common knowledge that Bing would be their official search engine for the tablets. It makes sense to use the same location software for the GPS as the search engine uses.
It will be interesting to see just how much of this will affect Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s market share in both the tablet market, and the location search industry. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has long since held the record as the most used search engine, and its maps application is a favorite among many consumers. However, as the middle and low end tablet market gains popularity, we could see a shift in this. We will have to wait and see.
