Nokia to bring budget mapping to the masses through Firefox OS

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Jumping into bed with Mozilla

Nokia to bring budget mapping to masses through Firefox OS
Pictures, mapping and more, more, more

Nokia has promised its Here service will bring top-end mapping features to budget phones when the Firefox OS launches.

Nokia has rebranded its mapping application to be called Here and has worked with Mozilla to offer a suite of features to the new OS when it arrives in 2013.

The new platform from the browser-maker is designed to make rich web apps that can run on a variety of affordable phones, and Nokia Here will provide free 'location experiences' to the OS.

All about the devs

Being able to offer location services is a key part of any operating system, and with Firefox OS the tie-in with Here will offer powerful tools for developers to play with.

However, the new OS is based on the HTML5 standard and runs on top of the Android structure, so the likes of Google Maps will still be available as competition.

It's in the tools the new system provides that the benefit comes in though, with both companies combining to integrate the mapping data within the platform.

The first Firefox OS devices are expected to launch in Brazil in January 2013, but will likely make their way to the UK and US later in the year at a super-cheap level.

Gareth Beavis
Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.