It always fascinates me how quickly the technology industry is evolving as the power and momentum shifts away towards broader, deep-rooted horizontal platform companies. When you look at different platforms: mobility OS - Google has an undisputed reach, retail - Amazon is burgeoning with digital commerce, social - Facebook is painting a richer social graph for billions of users, communications - WeChat is growing into an important communication and engagement platform, similarly location

HERE is pioneering the smart location and mapping platform

Last week we had an opportunity to spend some time with the HERE mapping champions and think-tank in London and Berlin understanding HERE's platform, go-to-market and marketing strategy. Nokia's mapping unit HERE is transforming into much more than a mapping platform. HERE until now had been in shadows of Nokia Devices & Services division which was acquired this spring by Microsoft. Automotive OEMs and the internal Nokia D&S unit were some of the HERE's biggest clients. But with the spin-off of D&S, HERE as a company has become more independent and agile to go after newer companies needing a location platform to power their offerings...