When Amazon announced the new Kindle Fire HD earlier this month, it also snuck out a new mobile Amazon Maps API for developers.
Now Amazon is drawing attention to its new mobile maps API to explain some of the features and benefits of using Amazon Maps to create apps.
The Amazon Maps API allows developers to embed interactive maps directly into their apps, allowing users to pan, zoom, and move about at will. The in-app maps can pull from a user's current location, and swap between satellite and standard map views.
Developers can also put their own custom markers on the maps, allowing a business to place pins for all of its locations right in its own Android app.
Amazon maps, via Nokia
While the move lessens Amazon's reliance on Google, the API is not based on any proprietary mapping service from the online retail giant.
As previously reported, Amazon recently struck a deal with Nokia, who will provide map and geocoding data for Amazon's tablets, and is the core of the Amazon Maps API.
However, it wasn't until Monday that Nokia confirmed it was indeed licensing its Location Platform to Amazon.
"Amazon is licensing the Nokia Location Platform (NLP) for maps and geocoding," said Sebastian Kurme, a spokesperson for Nokia's Communications, Location & Commerce business units, in a message to The Next Web.
Nokia is already providing maps for Windows Phone 8, positioning the company as the mapping competitor to Google and Apple's own services.
With Nokia maps encroaching onto the Android-based Kindle Fire HD, the company is making strides toward a bigger piece of the mobile pie.
That is, until Amazon develops its own in-house mapping and takes full ownership of Kindle navigation.
From Amazon via Engadget, The Next Web
