Webraska powers Vodafone Italy's GPS Navigation solution for Smartphones
Written by Webraska
Wednesday, 06 July 2005
Paris, France - July 06, 2005 - Webraska is pleased to announce the launch in Italy of Vodafone Navigator, a branded GPS navigation service for smartphones and wireless PDAs.
Powered by Webraska's SmartZone Navigation and SmartZone Geospatial Platform, Vodafone Navigator features up-to-date pan-European map data coverage, integration of dynamic point-of-interest data and real-time traffic information.
Vodafone Navigator "All-in-one" packs targeting the consumer retail market are competitively priced at 199, comprising the navigation software, a Bluetooth® GPS receiver, a universal car cradle, as well as one year subscription to the service. Subscription to the service from year 2 is 59 per year.
Vodafone Navigator offers subscribers the following unique functionality:
Real-time Traffic Alerts & Route Optimisation: Traffic information is dynamically integrated enabling push traffic alerts and generation of a new traffic-optimised route, if available. In addition, users can display the list of traffic events impacting their route, view the distance to the event and read the event description.
Advanced Point-Of-Interest (POI) Integration & Search: Users can search for points of interest, including Vodafone's proprietary Italian business listings, according to detailed search criteria. For instance, restaurants may be searched for by cuisine speciality or opening hours and may be visually located on the map. A database of hundred of thousands of points-of-interest, updated monthly, is available to users from launch. This database will be increased to four millions records in the coming twelve months.
Pedestrian Navigation: Vodafone Navigator provides pedestrian navigation with street routing and mapping, either using GPS real time positioning or walk speed simulation.
The navigation software is compatible with the following operating systems: Symbian Series 60, Symbian UIQ and Microsoft Windows Mobile for Pocket PC.
"This launch confirms the great interest that wireless carriers have in selling GPS navigation services and their trust in the potential of the GPS navigation on smartphones" declared Grégoire Descamps, VP Sales at Webraska; "Webraska again proved its unique capability to provide leading carriers with a customisable application offering best-in-class user experience and a powerful back-end architecture enabling dynamic integration of proprietary Points-of-Interest and real-time traffic data".
Vodafone Italy is targeting both business and consumer markets via their dealer network and enterprise sales force.
Vodafone Navigator benefits from the shared experience of Vodafone Italy and Webraska in providing location-based Directory Assistance Call Center services under Vodafone Italy's CercaFacile 892000 brand. The business directory, point-of-interest and traffic information data base available via CercaFacile 892000 is shared with Vodafone Navigator, enabling the partners to plan integrated call center and mobile GPS navigation services in the near future.
About SmartZone Navigation
SmartZone Navigation is a GPS assisted road navigation solution running on mobile devices that provides turn-by-turn and door-to-door guidance. The solution relies on an off-board technology: the required cartographic and dynamic content data are downloaded from a remote server to the device via the mobile network. Main features include:
Continent-wide detailed digital map data, regularly updated, allowing cross-border, door-to-door routing.
Integration of real-time traffic information for route optimisation.
Automatic local re-routing without server re-connection following wrong turns.
Points-of-interest (POI) searching and mapping; integration of proprietary POI data bases - as per customer requirement.
GPS-triggered voice instructions in multiple languages.
Accurate intersection geometry icons.
Zoomable and panable map that displays the user's current position.
Address bookmarking for instantaneous re-use of favorite locations.
About Webraska
Webraska is the leading provider of white label GPS navigation solutions for wireless carriers and branded service providers worldwide. Webraska enables customers to maximize revenues through a rich user experience, flexible pricing models and the integration of value added content. Customers benefit from our unrivalled experience deploying location-based services with more carriers in more countries than any other vendor.
Webraska now powers offerings for Orange, Vodafone, O2, Sensis (a wholly owned subsidiary of Telstra), and Toyota France. Webraska has a long track record of innovation, winning awards from Unstrung Magazine, TIME, Business Week, Tornado Insider and Frost & Sullivan.
Webraska has its headquarters in Paris, France, with satellite offices across Europe and Australia.
Hackday - Tips, Tricks, OpenData sources, and Developer Resources for Mobile Application Developers - Hackday events are becoming quite common, many local government
agencies embracing the format and opening the doors, and their data
vaults, to local developers, hackers, and those simply looking to mashup
some data. Read on for Tips, Open Data sources, Developer Tools, Mobile
Dev resources and more!
The Really Big List of Mapping, Geo location Mobile developer resources, APIs and Tools - The Mobile Ecosystem... no question that mobile is huge and
the opportunity for developers, in particular, geo developers! There's
loads of developer resources on the web so to help the developer,
here's a listing of just some of the fine dev resources, blogs,
toolsets and more to consider when developing or porting your app to a
smartphone or Tablet.
Mobile Technology Feature - Top 10 Business Apps for Android - Android has become one of the most popular mobile operating systems
in the world due to advanced software, competitive manufacturers, and an
app market that is filled with exciting and useful applications. Read
on for this fine Top 10 List compiled by tech writer, Blake Sanders
ArcGIS.com Mashup Tutorial with Flickr and Foursquare data-
Here's a simple "how to" tutorial on working with the free ArcGIS.com
to easily import KML or RSS data from Flickr and foursquare into ArcGIS
to create your own custom map mashup.
Most Users of Free Photo Apps Say Adding Cool Effects is Most Useful - Adding cool effects
to photos was rated as the most useful thing by more than halfof
consumers surveyed using free online photography services, according to
CatchFree a free
online service that helps people find the best free mobile and web applications
to perform useful tasks.
Flickr GPS Photo Tag Tip - Here's a tip for Flickr users who want to share their GPS information
with their photos. note, in order to do this you'll need to be
capturing photos using a GPS-enabled or GPS-aware camera (see you're
smartphone hardware settings to ensure that GPS or location sharing is
turned "ON)".
Social Location Directory
Do you have a location-aware application, social location service or other location-sensitive service that you'd like to share with us? Please browse this growing directory of Social location Services and feel free to leave a link to your favorite service! See the Directory HERE
Suggested Reading
The Underground Guide To The iPhone:
The iPhone is – if I may say so – one of the greatest mobile
revolutions of the past decade. More and more, mobile phones seem to
materialize out of our wildest dreams. Because of the tight integration
of third-party applications, you can do nearly everything with your
device — be it gaming, working, fooling around, and of course phoning.
Good Mobile Messaging: Executives and professional field forces spend an increasing amount of time on the road tending to business.
Mobile Apps - Native or Web?:
You probably have a plan to build a mobile app, but you've struggled
with the basic question - Should I build it using open web standards
such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, or should I build it as a native app
for the devices I want to target?
Location summit 2012 - Back for its third year, the Location Business Summit will bring
together senior level executives from across the whole breadth of the
location ecosystem to discuss strategies, form partnerships, compare
trends and forge new business ventures. May 22-23, 2012, Amsterdam
WhereCamp Berlin 2012 - For those passionate about geographical specialties, WhereCamp Berlin
is gathering its attendees on the 22nd and 23rd of June. Everyone is
free to present and share topics, news and trends