Nokia (NYSE:
NOK
) has announced that it will add Groupon Now! (NASDAQ:
GRPN
) deals to its Maps application. The new feature, which is
currently being integrated in the United States, (Groupon Now!'s
geographical limitations prevent it from going elsewhere), will
allow users to quickly access local Groupon deals when examining
the map of a particular area. Nokia will mark the deals and their
location with Groupon's famous green G image, as seen below.
For the time being, this feature is exclusive to Nokia. Both
companies will seemingly benefit from the deal, as Nokia can
promote Groupon Now! as one of its primary differentiating
features, while Groupon benefits from increased exposure. Users who
are interested in purchasing a daily deal will be redirected to
Groupon's site.
This is an interesting development for Nokia, which has had a
difficult time competing against the leading smartphone makers,
Apple (NASDAQ:
AAPL
) and Samsung. iOS and Google's (NASDAQ:
GOOG
) Android platforms are the current leaders in mobile operating
systems. Meanwhile, Nokia also faces competition from Research In
Motion (NASDAQ:
RIMM
), the once-popular corporation behind the BlackBerry line of
business smartphones.
Both Nokia and Groupon have watched their stocks decline over
the past several months. In the past week, however, Nokia shares
have been on the rise. The gains were partially attributed to a
widespread rumor that claimed that Lenovo, one of the world's
largest manufacturers of laptops and PCs, would acquire Nokia.
Those rumors died -- and Nokia shares began to level off -- after a
senior Lenovo exec said that the rumors ""
In February, Nokia unveiled the 808 PureView, the company's
greatest attempt at competing against the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy
S III. The device was tailor-made for amateur photographers who
were looking to get more out of the cameras that come built into
cellular devices. Unlike other smartphones on the market, which
feature cameras with no more than eight megapixels, the 808
PureView packs a whopping 41-megapixel camera. Instead of enabling
users to take larger images, the 808 PureView uses its megapixels
to allow the user to zoom up to three times without losing any
photo detail.
Apple is expected to unveil its next smartphone, the iPhone 5,
in September. It is not yet known when Samsung may unveil the
Galaxy S IV. However, the South Korean manufacturer is expected to
release two Windows Phone 8 devices before the end of the year.
In June, Research In Motion announced that it had delayed the
BlackBerry 10 platform and would not release it .
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