Nokia’s HERE mapping and traffic monitoring service has been a success for the company since it changed the name a couple of years ago. While it’s not as well known as some of the other mapping apps out there, the data it contains isn’t any less accurate, in fact many mapping sources get their data from Nokia’s traffic services, which in turn get their data from various traffic management centers who are at the heart of dispatching emergency vehicles and managing traffic incidents on the road. The biggest problem with Nokia’s HERE service is that they only have Windows apps; Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 are at the heart of the service, aside from the web browser interface, and this limits the potential userbase significantly.
Now it looks like Nokia might just be expanding to a place you wouldn’t exactly think about first: Samsung’s Gear series of smartwatches. In a Twitter post that effectively says almost nothing, Nokia posted the above picture that gives an obvious look at what might be announced for tomorrow. The picture, which just says “HERE for Gear,” followed by an announcement of an announcement, saying that Nokia has something to tell us at 10AM London time tomorrow, August 29th.
The real question is this: is this an app just for the Gear series of smartwatches, or does this include an Android app as well for integration with the smartwatch? Further more are we talking real-time navigation via the Gear, or just assisted pictures to go with your smartphone’s navigation software a la Android Wear’s implementation of Google Maps navigation? We’ll find out for sure tomorrow, but real-time navigation via a smartwatch is an exciting and super useful thing, so here’s hoping Nokia delivers.