In 2008, Nokia bought digital mapping and navigation company NAVTEQ for around $8 billion. That’s a pretty hefty price tag, even if NAVTEQ is widely regarded as the best mapping company around – and Nokia is trying to get its moneys worth. Today sees the launch of a revamped Ovi Maps, with a tonne of extra features added for free.
What’s the deal?
The new version of Ovi Maps aims to be what mobile navigation is built for – a true GPS, turn-by-turn direction guide with all of the extra features that mobile can offer:
Walk and drive navigation: your GPS phone will locate where you are now – then you select a destination and let Ovi Maps do the rest. It offers directions for pedestrians or drivers, and gives you the directions by voice if you are driving.
Worldwide: the service has maps covering 70 countries worldwide
Favourites: you can tag and review locations, share them with others and read other peoples entries
Events: you can read through a list of events happening within 3km of you including movies and gigs.
…and more than that. Nokia claims this is “hyper-local” and will provide results for nearby attractions in categories like Family, Dance and Festivals
Travel guides: the app comes with free access to guides from Lonely Planet and Michelin restaurant guides
Additional extras: like this handy dandy local weather guide
Check out the video for Nokias idealised version of the service:
(See the way the guy at the end is an old guy? That’s right, Nokia can make you cool too Granpa!)
Download here: http://maps.nokia.com/explore-services/ovi-maps/downloads
Anssi Vanjoki, Executive VP at Nokia, said “we want to make using your mobile for navigation as familiar as using it to send a text or take a picture. We believe that making the best maps with voice guided navigation available for free will be the catalyst to do this. Why have multiple devices that only work in one country or region? Put it all together, make it free, make it global and you have something that is truly useful and can help you get round almost any city in the world whether you’re on foot or driving.”
What we think?
Way to leverage your assets, Nokia. Is this particularly better than any other mobile navigation service on the market? No, not really. But it is just as good as any of the others… and its completely free. And Nokia can afford to do that. And there are 28 different models of Nokia phone that can run this GPS service, including the E71 and E72, N97, N900, N86 and a whole bunch from the 6000 classic series. See the full list here: http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/devices?filterid=1664
I’m wondering how they can afford to give it away for free after paying $8bil for it. Seems more of a response to the free Google turn-by-turn navigation on some Android phones.
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Great move by Nokia. It is no secret that Nokia is struggling in North America. This region needs a strong reason to buy a Nokia device. Simply having better hardware/antennas is not enough to compete in the US where other brands are more popular. (ie: Moto has a stronghold on many Americans).
This may just do it. The best mapping application on a Nokia! This would definitely make cause to consider a Nokia device!