Nokia provides the 'Here' to Google's 'Now'

Nokia's mapping and location-based services experience on Windows Phone is nothing short of excellent. Today, Nokia introduced the new brand for its geospatial, navigation, and location services, simply called "Here," which wraps up all of its services into a single cross-platform "location cloud."

This new brand will bring the Nokia mapping experience to Android some time in early 2013, including both a reference app and an SDK that allows developers to tie the new mapping service into their own applications. Nokia said that the augmented reality search technology first shown off in Nokia City Lens will be available in Here as a service called LiveSight.

Furthermore, Nokia announced it has partnered with Mozilla to bring an HTML5-based version of Here to the upcoming Firefox OS.

"Mozilla is a leader in HTML5, building the Web as a platform for developing compelling applications, and location is a key part of that platform," Jay Sullivan, Mozilla Vice President of Products said in a statement on Tuesday. "We are excited to work with Nokia as the combination of Firefox OS and HERE's location platform provides rich possibilities for mobile application developers to create amazing experiences for users."

Finally, as a part of the new brand announcement today, Nokia also announced that it plans to acquire California-based 3D image capture company, earthmine for Nokia's own "street view" type images to directly compete with Google Maps' famous Street View. This acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2012, but Nokia did not disclose any financial information about the transaction.