Nokia is Going Plazes

Nokia has recently announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire the context-aware social-activity mobile phone service – Plazes

“This acquisition helps Nokia to accelerate its vision of bringing people and places closer together, in line with our broader services strategy”, said Niklas Savander, head of Nokia services and software.

“In addition to the key assets, through this acquisition Nokia will bring on a visionary team with an advanced understanding of social-activity services, as well as the technical ability to further develop this area.”

Nokia are excited as Plazes adds the elements of “place” and “time” to social networking through features that allow people to alert friends of their activity and location.

Users are able to review their own and others’ past activities; share their experiences and make plans with friends, who are then able to respond with comments and suggestions as well as their own location information.

This acquisition falls in line with Nokias vision of social networking tools and the development of their handsets to this end; although it also sounds pretty good for any potential stalkers out-there so I’m hoping that there is adequate security on this.

The agreement is subject to the usual conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter 2008 after which Plazes will become part of Nokia’s Services & Software unit.