Finnish technology firm Nokia has incorporated Groupon deals into the maps application on its Lumia model phones.
The move by Nokia comes after the phone maker said that it is looking to find new ways to integrate maps with other functions amid heavy competition with the iPhone and Android models.
Users of the smartphone will be able access locations daily through discounted Groupon deals for the mapping system by clicking the phone’s ‘G’ icon at any time.
Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop told the media on Thursday, “It is to our benefit to ensure that many different companies use this, and there will be companies taking advantage of the platform who may compete with other elements of Nokia, but that has to be okay. It has to be, you have to think that way. The competition… is not with other device manufacturers, it’s with Google,” the BBC reports.
One industry analyst told the BBC that the feature was, “a logical extension”. He added that, “There’s a whole area of web use that could be made better if it used local information and maps, and one of the big weaknesses of Groupon’s strategy has been that it hasn’t been local enough. And by working with Nokia they can do this better. Lots of people are very interested in the local commerce, and this could be a way of making this work.”