Here's a protoype for pedestrian navigation on hyperlocal maps, a PND (personal navigation device).

The reason is simple and straightforward: seeing is believing. We're all used to understand Google Maps as the de facto standard in webmapping. GMaps is around since February 2005 - and made it to a category killer. Nevertheless, GMaps hasn't changed too much on the UX or density in the maps used - at least not for connected people using maps on smartphones or other devices. Doing maps on 3''-screens needs different maps.

More pictures, diving a little bit into the device (no, it's not be coincidence that the form factor is almost that of the iPhone.)

We needed to name the baby - so WalkMe was an obvious title. No, we didn't engage lawyers to check and brand or patent issues ... 

The GPS-enabled device boots with a nice startup screen:

Let's zoom in using the +/- symbols on an approximate 500m-scale and then go deeper, far beyond rooftop-level.

You'll see mass transit options: Tram, subway, public parking, S-Bahn (suburban trains). Down at the right corner, the compass points north. If GPS is positive, you'll see the icon change.

Here we approach Munich Hauptbahnhof (main station). The little finger icon is guiding the (blue) rubberband, indicating that I want to be guided there.

Stairs down to the subway are already shown at that scale.

The simulation mode would show the path I need to follow to a destination. Looks like this - precise building footprints are displayed at this resolution.

An approximately 50m-scale reveals even more detail - the blueish streets are pedestrian zones.

The deeper we dive into the city, the more detail is shown: precise housenumbers and POIs possible (not yet included in that prototype version).

Ooops, a small bug - german Umlauts were lost somewhere: should read "Prälat-Zistl-Zistl-Strasse" here. Yes: there's still much do do for a really useful application. Better UX/GUI, decent colors, line strengths, proper fonts and symbols. And we will work further into that.

This prototype was realized by and in close cooperation and with the professional support of KOTEI Navi, an innovative chinese company from Wuhan - thanks to our scientific partner Technical University of Munich, the right people and ideas made a perfect fit. Thanks folks - it was a pleasure!

Telecoms has an indepht article about PNDs, maps on mobile devices and the LBS zombie phenomenon (my words). File under 'numbercrunching' aside to 'analysis, well done'.

In-Stat has put 2007 PND shipments at 30.7 million and forecasts rapid growth to 68 million by 2012. (...) in the second quarter of this year, handset shipments hit almost 305 million by Gartner's estimation

Proponents of mobile navigation services point to the size of the addressable market. For PNDs this is the number of motor vehicles. For mobile navigation services it's the number of people.

And Nokia's senior vice president for context and advertising solutions, Ilkka Raiskinen, says that GPS functionality is now viewed by the market as a default capability for smartphones, like cameras and mp3 players. So if 30 million smartphones (ten per cent of Gartner's sales figure) are being shipped each quarter, navigation-capable mobile phones are outselling PNDs four to one.

"This is not a black and white situation."

A one-off cost may appeal to the consumer, but it's not enough for the likes of TomTom. With current pricing models PND firms can only increase their revenues by selling to new customers. What they now want is ongoing relationships with their users which is why, as the mobile sector gravitates towards navigation, the PND suppliers are advancing on mobile.

"People need to be careful how they use these services, especially when they're roaming. But we and the operators are working on schemes to make this more affordable," he says. "So we need to tell people to pre-load the maps when they're at home and just using the service for the navigation element. If you use it like that there's a huge impact on the amount of data you need to download. We need to be extremely careful how we market this and inform the consumers about the smartest way of using these types of services."

"The only thing you can say today is that navigation is a real market; a service for which people are prepared to pay. All that other stuff, all those other applications, it's just speculation. We don't know whether or not it will prove valuable to people."

... if out in the wild (fineprint: humor)

Here's part 3 of our little series "playing with numbers", offering some random datapoints mainly from mobile devices, PNDs and the usual suspects. Somehow focused on Germany ('cause this is where we are as you might have guessed already from our brutal use of Denglisch).

Don't blame the messenger on missing numbers - we harvested what is out there (pretty much, by the way).

No extrapolations, no nothing: if a number is missing, we don't have or need it. Everything future is guessstimated by the original sources.

Even if some of the estimates are completely exaggerated or an analysts' wet dreams: something is going on out there.

And this brings us back to our shameless self promotion: how will people navigate on the small screens of those mobile device they'll all be carrying around? Using maps made for vehicles ...?