Mobile phones are the most personal of communications devices. A person’s voice is one of the most personal of communications modes. Put them together and you may create the foundation for a new family of Mo’ Personal Navigation Devices (MPNDs?). Well, at least that’s the logic behind “Own Voice” a free, downloadable application for Nokia handsets that can run the latest rev of Ovi Maps (3.03) which feature voice output with turn-by-turn directions. See this page for a description of the service and a list of phones, along with a slightly annoying soundtrack. You can also follow instructions on the site to download the app along with Ovi Maps in order to try the service for yourself.

Nokia purchased the leading provider of digital maps, NavteQ, in October 2007 for more than $8 billion. It was a clear statement that it was prepared to position its smartphones as a more functional and affordable alternative to single-purpose personal navigation devices (PNDs) from TomTom, Garmin or Magellan, bearing in mind that these were companies that in many cases were customers of NavteQ and used its files to support their PNDs.

When Google and Verizon introduced an automobile mount for the Droid in late 2009, it not only intensified the belief that single-purpose PNDs’ days are numbered, it was a direct challenge to Nokia and its OVI Maps service. Thus Own Voice is the product of heightened competition and it will serve as a test to see if the guiding voice emanating from a navigational system (as opposed to price, appearance, accuracy, ease of programming or some other factor) can emerge as a competitive advantage.

As the Web site indicates, it takes quite a few steps to initiate use of Own Voice. At a minimum you must own one of the listed phones, which include Nokia 5800, Nokia X6, Nokia E72, Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini and all upcoming GPS-enabled smartphones. You must also have purchased and installed the OVI Maps app from the OVI Appstore. Own Voice is a free add-on to the OVI Maps Application. At that point subscribers are navigated through the process of recording 53 discreet spoken elements, including the ever-popular “You have arrived!”. Then “Voila”, they have created a personal navigation application that employs their own voice.

In this era of immediate gratification and real-time communications, it is ambitious and probably unrealistic to think that new users will spend the hour or so it might take to record 53 utterances to their own satisfaction. Just think of how many times it took for you to get “the right greeting” on your mobile phone’s voicemail service. Now think of doing that 52 more times. It is much more likely that they will opt to choose the pre-recorded voices that other Own Voice users have “shared” in the Own Voice marketplace. It will never be as big as “Charlie Bit My Finger on YouTube, but Nokia is creating the sort of social platform that can provide an ego boost for a creative, self-identifying voice talent. There were already scores of examples in dozens of languages on the site, which includes a column of “Featured” voices, as well as the obligatory “Most Popular” page to help people identify a short list of candidates for the voice they’d like to hear when they’re looking for directions in a strange town.

Nokia deserves credit for using a voice-based service to differentiate its mobile product. Own Voice for Ovi Maps’ planners also deserves style points for creating yet another platform for someone’s creative work to “go viral” (though we’d be interested to know the size the “audience” made up of users of the latest rev of OVI maps on selected Nokia smartphones amounts to these days). It is just the sort of thing that may be daunting to casual users but challenging enough to attract a sufficient number of creative types to make for some very entertaining, and well differentiated, PND-based experiences.

Categories: Articles

Tags: mobile speech, Nokia, Recombinant Communications, Personal Navigation Devices