Bing Maps to get Nokia branding on all devices - including rivals'

Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, has told Pocket-lint that we shall soon be seeing the Nokia brand name within other devices and not just the company's own phones.

"You'll starting seeing the word 'Nokia' on a map that you get from Microsoft properties over a period of time," Elop explained to Pocket-lint in an interview behind closed doors at CES in Las Vegas. "Even if you are on a BlackBerry device, who recently said they were going to start using Bing Maps."

The news will probably come as a shock to companies involved with Bing, such as Research In Motion who makes the popular BlackBerry smartphones.

"Part of the relationship we established with Microsoft is that we are clearly placing a bet on the Windows Phone platform. [In return] they are placing a bet on our location-based platform: mapping, navigation and so forth," said Elop.

"In the time ahead, what you will see is, across all the Microsoft properties including Bing maps, more and more work will be done by Nokia."

Elop also told Pocket-lint that Nokia's deal to help Microsoft improve its navigation services is a way to protect the Finnish company and make sure the agreement wasn't as one sided as perhaps people currently perceive:

"We did that for important reasons as we had the better mapping assets so it made sense. But it also creates some balance in the relationship with Microsoft," he said.

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