Nokia Developing 3D Rival to Google's Street View

Nokia is entering the 3D arena through Navteq, its mapping division, by recording 3D street views initially throughout Europe. The images are much sharper than Google’s 2D street renderings and have better marketing capabilities.

Objects rendered in Nokia's system will resemble their 3D originals better than they do in Street View, says Mattila. But perhaps the most noticeable way in which Nokia's service will differ from Google's is that users will be able to move smoothly through urban environments, almost as if they were in a photorealistic driving game, suggesting the firm could license its 3D cityscapes to games companies that want cheap but realistic 3D urban models. Navigating through Google Street View, by contrast, simply involves hopping between panoramas photographed from a series of set locations.

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Google has the resources to go around and photograph the world.....Nokia...not so much. I'd be surprised if they continue this outside of Europe.

Err, well, I'd love to congratulate them on their ambitiousness... but as the-one1 said, they're really rather confined to Europe; in a way, "Europe Street View" would be a poetic admission of the slow decline of their worldwide market share.

the-one1 said:

Google has the resources to go around and photograph the world.....Nokia...not so much. I'd be surprised if they continue this outside of Europe.

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lol, how much do you think it costs to drive a car around and store the data? Though it does generate a TON of data (one of my jobs is speccing the environments to hold it)

Their profits are down but they are divesting Nokia Siemens (which suck loads of their cash out) and have a *&^* ton of assets and cash equivalents to hand, plus spend €6B a year on R&D (which counts this) Not to mention they should start increasing sales of their high end phones. I think they'll manage. Despite their shit smart phones they're not exactly broke.

If anything it's more likely to happen since Nokia bought Navteq than when Navteq was on its own.

It's also old news

Nokia is loosing market share for smartphones big time. I hardly doubt they will find the money to spend on such initiative.

So this new street view...adds...what? You can see a load of photos of streets. What about the microsoft version...you can see a load of photos of streets...in a line. Is it really worth doing?

i too dont see this as something worth the cost
i guess street view is a bit useful to get a visual of an unknown destination I'm heading to but nothing vital for me or something I even use much