Taking benefit from its recent Nokia’s mobile business acquisition, Microsoft has decided to take advantage of Nokia’s Here mapping and location services  to better compete against Google Maps.

In a presentation on the strategic rationale for the Nokia deal, Microsoft mentioned Nokia’s Here products as below:

“Need an effective alternative to Google; more than one digital map of the world”

“Microsoft gets flexibility to integrate HERE with other experiences”

Recently Microsoft announced that it will get hold of several new mapping and location services as part of its acquisition of Nokia’s Devices & Services business, out of which main products are Nokia’s HERE Drive, HERE Maps and HERE Transit.

If you are not much familiar with Nokia’s HERE line, all these products were designed to help people travel more efficiently and reduce carbon emissions in the process. This is mentioned on Nokia’s website about HERE’s products:

“HERE Transport makes using public transportation easier, offering public transportation route planning in hundreds of cities around the world. HERE Maps and HERE Drive help people in cars plot the most optimal route to their destination, making it possible to cut down on travel time and carbon emissions.”

Apart from currently acquired Nokia’s HERE products, Microsoft’s Bing search engine already offers mapping services such as public transportation routes. But with the current acquisition, Microsoft has got the flexibility to integrate Here with other experiences.
As Google is a dominant player in mapping and location services, this acquisition will help Microsoft to gain a better position in the competition.

The much talked-about $1.17 billion Microsoft-Nokia deal took place a few days back, which several people regard as a desperate move for Microsoft to catch up in the mobile market while others see this as the company’s last attempt to make Windows Phone matter. Whatever it is, we hope that it does good for both the companies.