Navizon today announced it has signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft, under which Microsoft will use Navizon’s global location database to provide an enhanced experience to its mobile users.
Navizon is a hybrid positioning system combining GPS, Wi-Fi and Cellular triangulation. It’s similar to Skyhook Wireless, a Boston-based company that uses Wi-Fi as the underlying reference system. Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch use Skyhook’s WPS as the primary location engine for Google Maps and other applications.
Navizon, a software-only hybrid wireless positioning system, helps users navigate in most major cities across the globe. Navizon works by triangulating signals broadcasted from Wi-Fi access points and cellular towers, and the company’s software is now embedded in numerous smartphone applications.
There are nearly 6,000 location apps on iPhone, 900 on Android and 300 on BlackBerry (pdf), but Skyhook found that only 43 of these apps are available in all three app stores. Of these 43 apps, most are free, indicating that developers make their apps cross-platform as a way to increase download numbers, not revenues.
Related Location Services articles on Dailywireless include; Mapping: To Go, Pothole? There’s an App for That, Augmented Reality Comes Home, Nokia: Free Navigation,
