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Building Blocks for Mobile Location Based Services

Simple – Be productive

Stable, easy-to-use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and ready-made User Interface (UI) components cut development costs and the time to market.

Innovative – Free your imagination

Leading solutions like Landmarks! and Map and Navigation Framework make it a snap for developers to create location-aware applications with advanced features.

Standards-based – Feel safe

Open and industry standard compatible implementations provide out-of-the-box interoperability while letting you do business in a free, non-discriminatory environment.


Build what you want, use what you know - Location Platform Services (LPS)

Location Platform Services (LPS) is an extensive set of simple, easy-to-use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) which enables not only C/C++ developers, but also Java, Flash Lite and Web Run-Time (WRT) developers to benefit from location awareness in their applications.


Global maps at your fingertips - Map and Navigation Framework (MNF)

Map and Navigation Framework (MNF) is a middleware technology designed to simplify map-based application and services development. Think of it as a broker between applications providing and consuming map and navigation features.

MNF makes it easy for developers to *

  • Show a map, or something on a map
  • Obtain a map as a bitmap image – new in S60 5th Edition
  • Input location from a map
  • Navigate to a destination
  • Geocode an address to coordinates
  • Reverse geocode coordinates to an address

*Subject to service providing Map and Navigation Provider Application

A free provider application is available for download at maps.nokia.com. c

MNF has been in part of S60 since 3rd Edition Feature Pack1. A separately installable SDK (Software Development Kit) plug-in will be available for developers at forum.nokia.com »


Retrieve those coordinates - Location Acquisition Interface (LAI)

Loation Acquisition Interface (LAI) is a middleware technology that hides complexities of individual positioning methods behind a simple, yet powerful high-level Application Programming Interface (API)

LAI thus makes Symbian or S60 licensee signed applications compatible with any supported positioning method available in the handset.

Modular structure of LAI makes it easy for handset manufacturers (S60 licensees) to plug in further positioning methods e.g. for a handset specific integrated GPS.

Bundled positioning methods make S60 licensee’s handsets compatible with Secure Use Plane Location (SUPL) network-based positioning system and with leading Bluetooth GPS devices out-of-the-box.


Share your favourite places - Landmarks!

Landmarks! is a Nokia-developed open standard technology for user-definable location tags.

Landmarks represent geographical places and are to places what bookmarks are to web pages, or books – they help you find that same spot again.

A landmark can record many types of information about a place, e.g. name of the place, address, coordinates, category (e.g. shopping, entertainment, sightseeing), contact information (e.g. phone, email, web) etc.

People can share landmarks over the web, receive them from friends over Multimedia Messaging (MMS), Bluetooth (BT) and email or create landmarks by themselves using any compatible handset.

Starting with S60 5th Edition, it is also possible to import GPX (GPS Exchange) based POIs (Points of Interest) into the Landmarks! database.


Out-of-the-box inter-operability - Secure User Plane Location (SUPL)

Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) is an industry standard solution for exchanging location related information between a handset and a cellular network in a cost-effective way. SUPL achieves this by using User Plane protocols such as GPRS.

Operators can use SUPL to

  • provide network-based positioning service
  • provide assistance data to improve GPS performance (AGPS)
  • retrieve GPS data for network resident applications

SUPL is operator-friendly because unlike signaling layer (control plane) solutions it does not require expensive and time-consuming cellular network infrastructure updates.