Affordable mobile GPS navigation on the way

27 January, 2006

Terralink International and French company Webraska announced today that they have signed an agreement to bring to New Zealand Webraska’s platforms for navigation and location-based services on mobile devices and the Internet.

Webraska’s suite of mobile platforms includes Webraska Navigation 6, which will be New Zealand’s first end-to-end “plug and play” solution for turning handheld devices into mobile turn-by-turn navigation devices and delivering location-based services to mobile phones.

Terralink International will sell and support Webraska’s product suite in New Zealand which will be enabled with Terralink data, New Zealand’s most comprehensive and trusted navigation dataset. Terralink location data is used day-to-day by New Zealand’s first response emergency services.

Terralink Managing Director Mike Donald, says he expects the new platform to allow affordable mobile navigation for all New Zealanders.

“This will be a big leap ahead for New Zealand’s geographic IQ. Webraska’s technology can make mobile navigation an affordable monthly subscription service rather than an expensive one-off purchase. Until now, mobile navigation has only been available on dedicated hardware with an entire dataset preloaded. With the Webraska platform, maps and voiced turn-by-turn instructions are kept on a central server and only transmited to a smartphone or PDA as required,” he said.

Server-based maps meant applications could be developed to deliver the most up-to-date information, including traffic status reports and alternative routes in congested areas.

In addition to GPS turn-by-turn navigation, the Webraska platforms also enable a suite of mobile phone location-based services. The most popular include maps and street directions delivered to mobile phones, information about the location of friends, points of interest such as ATMs, restaurants or movie theatres.

Webraska CEO Eric Nodé-Langlois said mobile navigation was enjoying huge global growth.

“All around the world the market for mobile navigation applications is exploding with the introduction of smartphones. Webraska Navigation's compatibility with the Windows Mobile and Symbian operating systems, with its unparalleled map-matching quality, simplicity of use and real-time traffic information is a clear winner with mobile telecom operators, device manufacturers and subscribers."

Mr Donald said he expected the Webraska suite of applications would increase the market for tailored solutions for individual enterprises, including fleet and asset tracking and routing services on mobile devices.