Mainstream Adoption for Pedestrian Navigation

12 June 2009, 9:24pm

June 12, 2009 – NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of digital map, traffic and location data, today confirmed its industry-leading pedestrian navigation product, NAVTEQ Discover Cities, now powers several on-foot commercially available devices and applications throughout the world.

Offering up to 53 pedestrian-specific attributes, NAVTEQ Discover Cities enables an advanced pedestrian navigation experience while leading the industry in quality and coverage. NAVTEQ Discover Cities has extensive data that helps navigation devices and applications provide a variety of routing options to users – including those entirely on foot, or with portions on public transport systems. For instance, when a pedestrian wants the option to use public transport, NAVTEQ Discover Cities enables routes which take into consideration the location of bus and rail stations/ stops and their entrances/exits in relation to the pedestrian route as well as the train/bus network information, including transfer locations.

Some of the world’s best-known companies have deployed applications or devices utilising NAVTEQ Discover Cities data, including Garmin, Networks In Motion and Nokia. This growing trend confirms NAVTEQ’s own research: Consumers ranked the use of a device for ‘on-foot’ navigation as one of the most important reasons for considering the purchase of a mobile phone1. Commercially available devices and applications using NAVTEQ Discover Cities data include:

Garmin’s CityXplorer™ Maps

Garmin’s CityXplorer™ maps are available for select tourist destinations in both Europe and North America and can easily be downloaded to the company’s nüvi line of portable navigation devices. With CityXplorer, users can make the most of their journey by planning and using routes that include public transport options such as bus and underground rail stations.

Networks In Motion (NIM) Gokivo™ Navigator

Gokivo provides customers with NIM’s renowned on-phone navigation and local search platform, turning BlackBerry® smartphones into indispensable mobile tools, with an array of connectivity options at their fingertips.

Gokivo is already available from BlackBerry App World and incorporates NAVTEQ® maps and NAVTEQ Discover Cities content in Europe and North America, delivering an enhanced pedestrian navigation experience.

Ovi Maps by Nokia

Nokia, the first to integrate NAVTEQ Discover Cities mapping and pedestrian navigation attributes, has continued to expand its offering with over 80 cities including shortcuts through Closesquares, parks and buildings, 3D landmarks, building footprints and public transport entrance points in their upcoming version of Ovi Maps. These, combined with compass and real-time pedestrian navigation “Walk”, redefine pedestrian orientation and navigation in urban environments. The upcoming version of Ovi Maps for mobile will soon start shipping on millions of Nokia devices and will be available for upgrade to existing compatible Nokia devices at www.nokia.com/maps. The NAVTEQ Discover Cities components are also integrated within the map data and Walk routing on Ovi Maps for web at www.maps.ovi.com.

Since its launch, NAVTEQ Discover Cities coverage has expanded in all major regions of the world. Each city added to the product has data collected and verified with NAVTEQ’s “feet-on-the-street” expertise, offering customers up to 53 pedestrian-specific map attributes, such as paved pathways, walkways through parks and plazas, bridges, tunnels, footpaths and crosswalks.

NAVTEQ Discover Cities also serves as an ideal platform for additional content from NAVTEQ, such as visual content or travel/leisure guides. When combined, consumers can experience much richer travel experiences. For example, 3D landmarks provides visual confirmation that a person is walking in the right direction, while an in-depth restaurant review from a travel guide can provide valuable insight for the evening’s activities.

“The growing number of commercially available devices and applications reinforces the trend that pedestrian navigation is becoming mainstream.” said Jeff Mize, executive vice president, global sales, NAVTEQ. “We are pleased that the high-quality data from NAVTEQ Discover Cities will enable our customers to provide consumers with accurate orientation and guidance to further enhance the pedestrian experience.”

[1] NAVTEQ Proprietary Research Study – April 2008

NAVTEQ

Geo: International