Nokia, Facebook Link GPS, Social Networking

Posted by: Jack Ewing on September 02, 2009

For more than a year Nokia execs have been forecasting that the GPS capability of high-end mobile phones would mesh with social networks. Now the Finnish handset maker is trying to get out in front of the trend, announcing an agreement with Facebook that will let users broadcast their locations to friends. The new service, which Nokia is calling lifecasting, means you can let your Facebook friends know when you’re in the neighborhood. Instead of just connecting online, you could actually meet in the flesh.

Lifecasting will come with the N97 mini when the $630 device begins shipping in October. It will also be available as a free download for owners of the N97, Nokia’s current top-of-the-line smartphone. The announcement, made Sept. 2 at the Nokia World event in Stuttgart, is part of a broader product and software offensive designed to reassert the company’s dominance in high-end devices.

Lifecasting could help push online interaction back into the physical world—a potentially powerful development, especially if the service resonates with customers and application developers, and they find creative ways to use it.

But history has also shown that such new developments often take years to catch on because they require a big change in user behavior. Nokia, which beat Apple to the market by years with devices that could surf the Internet, was not as successful as its rival in getting customers to actually use the capability. And the company is weak in the U.S. where Internet-based services often catch on first.

Lifecasting is a great idea, but Nokia will have to show it has learned how to make such inventions not only possible but appealing and usable.