Nokia's Elop: "Our Aim Is To Become The 'Where' Company"

Nokia is hoping to follow Google and Facebook in cornering the market in speciality services, with CEO Stephen Elop revealing that the company's "aim is to become the 'Where?" company." Just as Google became the go-to place for "What?" and Facebook for "Who?", Nokia will look to use the growing importance of the smartphone as a hub for location-based services.

"The mobile device will become the nucleus for collecting real-time data from sensors" Elop explained. Handsets that can capture location, orientation, speed and even pulse rate from their integrated sensor arrays, along with tracking social media preferences – our likes and dislikes.

"We could be a leader" in this new direction of services, Elop argues, pointing to the increasing closeness between Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. "We expect the launch of Windows 8 for tablets and PCs, and Windows Phone 8, to be a catalyst for Lumia" Elop says.

Exactly what those location-based services might take the form of is unclear. Nokia has already taken advantage of its NAVTEQ technology to develop apps like Nokia Drive and Nokia Transport for Windows Phone, but the contextual integration is a new direction.

That's not to say it's a direction Nokia has no experience in. The company showed off a so-called Linked Internet UI system back in 2009, which used pattern tracking and location to aggregate content dispersed across across multiple services. It's a strategy similar to what Google has done with Google Now in Android Jelly Bean; more details in the concept video:

Nokia Linked Internet UI: