The comment came from global advisory and consulting firm Ovum, who reported that Google along with device vendor Nokia, have both stolen a march on the operators when it comes to the D2C offering; and more recently as a network enabler which operators could open up to third-party application developers and preferably at a premium.

Two Ovum executives, Jeremy Green (practice leader) and Michele Mackenzie (principal analyst), reported that Nokia and Google have launched their own location-enabled applications and building location platforms which allow them to enable third-party applications and build developer communities to serve their own user bases.