Mobile Entertainment

If the female sex is already weary of men’s inability to ask for directions, then how is it to cope with this new development? Here’s a concept that says to men: you don’t ever have to ask a stranger the way any more – and it’s all because of an electronic gadget with a really long manual you can spend ages reading.

Mind you, I think Nokia’s big idea – called Walk – is pretty good for women too. Let’s be honest here, a good proportion of females (Mrs Green is a classic example) are simply rubbish at orienting themselves in space. They don’t know left from right; they can’t read a map unless it’s pointing the same way they are.

Nokia Walk, when used with a new 6210 Navigator handset, is perfect for women with this particular shortcoming (I know, girls, it’s not all of you) because it contains a compass so the map orientates itself in the pedestrian’s direction. It then provides information about the surrounding buildings, streets and parks.

Nokia clearly believes that navigation will become a massive factor in the future, er, direction of mobile telecoms. At Walk’s launch during Mobile World Congress, its CEO even predicted that mapping will eventually command the same ‘must-have’ status as voice, text and camera. Of course, the big question is how to monetise it.

The obvious answer is advertising. And there’s a school of thought that location is the factor that mobile advertising has been waiting for: it’s one thing to put a banner on a WAP site, quite another to put a ‘free bottle of wine at Restaurant X’ alert on a map when you know someone is searching for a place to eat.

Having recently bought Enpocket and Navteq, Nokia is putting the pieces together to bring these ideas to market.

I wonder how much further Nokia could go with this. Last week it was revealed that Italian scientists may have discovered the precise location of the female G-spot. I look forward to the launch of Nokia’s new G series of ‘internal navigation’ devices. With multi-speed vibrate function.