“From next month, all new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with high-end walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides at no extra cost”, said Nokia in a statement.
This follows the success of the new version of the Ovi Maps. On Wednesday, Nokia announced that since the 21 January 2010 launch of the new version of Ovi Maps with free walk and drive navigation, there have been over 1.4 million downloads. The one million mark was reached just one week after the launch.
“We’re averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day”, said Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice-president of Nokia.
“When we announced free walk and drive navigation we knew it would be a game-changer. The number of people now using their Nokia for navigation, and as a result looking for more location-aware software, is growing faster than even we predicted”, said Vanjoki.
The success of the new version Ovi Maps is a key part of Nokia’s strategy to lead the market in mobile maps, navigation and location-based services. By leveraging its investment in NAVTEQ, Nokia has been able to remove the costs associated with navigation for drivers and pedestrians and is quickly activating a massive user base to which it can offer new location features, content and services.
“This is great news for our third party application developers. Within a matter of days there is an installed base of more than one million active users all potentially hungry for new and innovative location-aware apps.
“For the operators too there is a growing opportunity to sell more data-plans and a complete navigation package to existing and new customers,” said Vanjoki.
“There is a huge appetite for GPS navigation on mobile phones. We estimate there were already 25.9 million people actively using GPS navigation on their mobile phones at the end of 2009,” said Chris Jones, vice-president and principal analyst at research firm Canalys.
Ovi Maps covers more than 180 countries with car and pedestrian navigation for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries. There are more than 6000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world.
by Goodman Majola
