Nokia's new location platform is here. No, seriously it's "Here".

Earlier today in San Francisco, CEO Stephen Elop hosted an event to announce the all-new branding for Nokia's Location Platform. The significance of the new name is to usher in the era of a multiplatform mapping service across major platforms, as well as a few new goodies that users will be able to tap into.

iOS devices will receive an official Here app, which will include "offline capabilities, voice-guided walk navigation, and public transport directions" upon its release in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, Nokia has announced an official SDK for Android OEMs to leverage in early 2013. Finally, Here will also support the new Mozilla Firefox OS next year with a mobile web app.


At the event, Nokia also announced plans to acquire digital mapping company earthmine whose technologies will become "integral parts of HERE's 3D map making capabilities". Finally, Nokia announced LiveSight which is the same augmented reality and mapping combo that the Lumia-exclusive app City Lens has touted for the past several months. You can see an introductory video of LiveSight's tech in action after the break.

There's no word on how this will affect Nokia's location apps on their Lumia devices, but we have a feeling they will be rebranded with the new Here name. Overall it seems as though Nokia is taking location even more seriously than ever, and the move to go multiplatform was inevitable. Here could become a great asset for the company going forward, and a huge threat for that other mapping company.

You can go check out the official Here website, uh, here.

Source: Nokia, Nokia Conversations 1, 2