NEWS /

Vodafone to Close Navigation Services

13 Mar, 2010, 2:33 pm IST | by Reuters |

Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator by revenue, is to close its navigation business as it could not compete with free services provided by Google and Nokia.


Vodafone, which bought a Swedish navigational software firm Wayfinder for $30 million in December 2008, said it would close the offering with the loss of 95 jobs across Sweden, Romania and Britain. Vodafone said the commercial proposition for navigational services had completely changed after the introduction of free services in the last six months. Existing customers on the Vodafone offering will be moved over to new services provided by partners such as handset makers. "People expect to have (navigational services) and they don't expect to have to pay," a spokeswoman said, adding that was not the case when they bought the company. The business model of providing paid-for turn-by-turn navigation services has come under pressure since Google and Nokia announced their plans. Vodafone's decision to move into navigational services was announced at the time as part of its drive to grow mobile data revenues as the mobile market became saturated.
RELATED STORIES

Windows 8 likely to support Adobe Flash

Windows 8 likely to support Adobe Flash

About eight months back, when Microsoft introduced its Windows 8 Metro UI, it was almost clear that the company’s Metro version........

Dell Latitude 10, first Windows 8 tablet shows up

Microsoft's programme to incubate 10 Indian start-ups in cloud computing

Giant radio telescope gets split location

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201 Review

Top 5 potential Gmail alternatives

Yahoo! Axis reportedly slowing down IE9

 

Leaked Images, Availability, Pricing,
Specs, Pre-order

Photos

High Court Order - Madras

High Court Order - Madras

17 May, 2012, 04:22 PM

2.3

Trials Evolution

Trials Evolution

12 May, 2012, 10:33 AM

Sniper Elite V2

Sniper Elite V2

09 May, 2012, 10:04 PM

3.3

MORE PHOTOS

OPINIONS

Padmini Harchandrai

The latest "should they-shouldn't they" event with Facebook is the lift of the minimu...

MORE OPINIONS

features

Portable Wi-Fi Drives for your smartphone

Portable Wi-Fi Drives for your smartphone

Fed up of the limited storage on your mobile device? Here are some devices

By Aaron Almeida

Top 5 potential Gmail alternatives

Top 5 potential Gmail alternatives

Google’s Gmail service is arguably the most advanced and feature-packed...

By Naina Khedekar

Five ways to beat the petrol hike

Five ways to beat the petrol hike

Petrol prices went up by a considerable amount post Wednesday, and this...

By Karan Shah

MORE FEATURES

On video: HTC One V

On video: HTC One V

18 May, 2012, 04:44 AM

4.5

On video: Cowon Z2 (16GB)

On video: Cowon Z2 (16GB)

15 May, 2012, 04:58 PM

2.3

On video: Samsung WB150F

On video: Samsung WB150F

08 May, 2012, 04:23 AM

5.0

MORE VIDEOS

776 views

1129 views

630 views

MORE WALLPAPERS