Half of all phones to sport sat nav

Mobile phone market leader Nokia plans to add navigation to half of the phones it sells in the next four years. The move is intended to generate new revenue streams amid decreasing handset prices, a senior official at the manufacturer said.

Michael Halbherr, the head of Nokia's location-based activities, said he remains comfortable with Nokia's year-old goal for seeing up to 50 per cent of its phones equipped with global positioning system (GPS) chips in 2010 to 2012.

"We are planning to ship 35 million GPS units this year," Halbherr said, adding "and many more location-enabled phones that use cell-towers to orient themselves on the map."

"You will see few 'E' or 'N' Series phones without GPS," he said.

Last year Nokia sold 437 million phones, and it expects the volume to grow more than 10 percent this year. It sold 38 million phones in its multimedia range "N Series" and some 7 million "E Series" business phones.

GPS chips use orbiting satellites to pinpoint the whereabouts of a phone user, thereby enabling a host of location-based services.

Last October, when unveiling an $8.1 billion offer for U.S. based digital map supplier Navteq, Nokia said it would have tens of navigation-enabled phones on the market by end-2008.

It sells five models with built-in GPS and has unveiled four more which will ship in the coming months.

However free-to-use services such as Google Maps have also been driving the uptake of GPS phones.

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