Talk about a boon for Mother Road travelers: Navigadget is reporting that Nokia seeks to put global-positioning system chips in all its cell phones.
The source that’s leaking this information reportedly is from, ironically, Route 66, which places GPS chips in Nokia 6610 models. Here
Although the N series have started to get GPS, Nokia is apparently aiming to put GPS into every one of its phones in the future, according to Route 66’s account manager for Britain, Mike Goodenough. He told us “Nokia’s goal is to be at the top of navigation”, bar none.
In essence we’ll see GPS in everyday mobile phones – even pay as you go cheapies. It’s another selling point in the great mobile phone upgrade push. The downside is, of course, that it’ll batter battery life. GPS can be turned off though and it’s a damn sight more efficient than using a separate GPS dongle and using Bluetooth for the two to talk.
If this is true, it’ll put a lot of pressure on Garmin GPS devices and other cell-phone competitors. It’ll also press Apple, whose iPhone is set to come out this summer. IPhone wasn’t reported to contain GPS went it was introduced in January, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve Jobs’ boys rectify that before its launch.
(Via Mad4MobilePhones.com.)