Networks in Motion, the Aliso Viejo mobile navigation company, just scored a major deal to get its technology into mobile phones around the globe.
Ericsson, the massive Swedish mobile telecom company, picked Networks In Motion’s AtlasBook Global so wireless companies that use Ericsson can rebrand the software for their own customers. Here in the U.S., Networks In Motion powers Verizon Wireless’ VZ Navigator and Alltel Navigation.
It’s a major deal for Networks In Motion, which launched in 2000 and now has 192 employees (140 are in Aliso Viejo). Steve Andler, the company’s vice president of marketing, didn’t reveal how financially significant this could be but offered perspective.
“Long term, this is a big deal,” Andler said. “In the (European Union) alone there are 50+ carriers, so you could see one or two deals that rival the big three in America (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon) for the number of navigation users. It took time to get to millions of subscribers here, so that type of rollout will happen with this deal too as we work with Ericsson and the carriers to build private labeled services based on our AtlasBook Global release.”
GPS phones are one of the high-points in an otherwise depressing future for the mobile phone industry, according to market researcher In-Stat. While the number of cell phones is still growing, rates are plummeting. Allen Nogee, an In-Stat principal analyst, expects cell phone chips to grow at just 3.3 percent a year for the next five years. GPS, meanwhile, still hasn’t made it into a lot of phones so that’s a much larger growth area in the mobile industry.
For the most part, though, Networks In Motion’s news won’t help Verizon customers who travel to Europe. Verizon is a completely different entity. Verizon customers who want to use navigation overseas need a global device, like the BlackBerry 8830 or the BlackBerry Storm, which have access to the Vodafone network in Europe.
“However,” added Andler, “there have been rumors about global support for VZ Navigator.”
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