Wayfinder lost by Vodafone

MOBILE NETWORK OPERATOR Vodafone has taken the map company Wayfinder down a dark country lane and shot it.

In a phone call Anna Cloke, head of brand communication at Vodafone group services, said that the decision to close down the firm, which had been only recently purchased by Vodafone, was a financial one, and one bought about by changes in the marketplace.

"Vodafone has announced the proposed closure of its Wayfinder Systems AB subsidiary, headquartered in Malmo. The competitive environment for turn-by-turn navigation has changed significantly in the last six months as competitors have chosen to make this service free to customers", she explained.

Cloke added that firms such as Nokia and Google are now offering comparable services for free, and that this had made Vodafone reconsider how sensible it was to support and develop its own tools and application. She said that the firm would continue to offer Wayfinder services for a transitionary period, and would retain a small number of its staff in order to do so, but would consider working with partners on a new, comparable option.

Meanwhile, a visit to the Wayfinder website tells us that the firm is hiring. Maybe it needs to hire a webmaster to update the site about redundancies, as Cloke explained that some 95 people have been notified about the closure and the negative impact this would have on their employment status. µ