Nokia gives GPS satnav away free and forever pre-iPad mania

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 21 January 2010 18:34

Opinion and Analysis

Just days before the world is set to learn just what Apple has in store for 2010, Nokia has struck back at competitors with the stunning offer of free global GPS navigation for all existing GPS-equipped Nokia phones, rolling it out with a new version of Ovi Maps and promising no hidden charges whatsoever.

Well, who’d a thunk it? Free GPS navigation from Nokia for all of its GPS-equipped phones, with a list of 10 models to start with, more to come in coming weeks, and an N900 version promised as well!

The initial list of compatible Nokia phones that owners can immediately upgrade is as follows: the Nokia N97 mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia E52, Nokia E55, Nokia E72, Nokia 5230, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6730 classic and Nokia X6.

Ovi Maps can be download free from the maps page of Nokia’s website, and while it oddly doesn’t include support for the N97 right off the bat, given that “more Nokia smartphones [are] expected to be added in the coming weeks”, the regular N97 will surely be supported, along with other Nokia smartphones like the N95, N96, N85 and a host of others.

Nokia is definitely excited about the new offering ,calling it a game changer and clearly trying to shake up a market which was recently all shook up by Google’s voice controlled Maps application on the Motorola Droid and Google’s own Nexus One, which gives you free navigation in the US only (at this stage) but lets you speak the address or destination you want to go to.

Given the existing number of compatible (or soon to be compatible) Nokia smartphones already on the market, it’s unsurprising to see Nokia saying that “This move has the potential to nearly double the size of the current mobile navigation market.”

It’s not just “basic navigation” that is free either, but all the “high-end car and pedestrian navigation features, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for more than 180 countries.”

But wait – there’s more. Maps can be pre-loaded onto a smartphone so all GPS navigation can be done offline, something that’s very handy especially when overseas and you want to avoid criminally high roaming data charges.

All those city guides, food guides and add-on packs for “walking mode” are all now free, too, enabling Nokia to truly stress that there are “no hidden charges”, whereas Google Maps is supposed to have potential hidden charges even if its basic service is still free.

Even better, Nokia is using new “hybrid vector mapping” technology which allows the new Ovi Maps to download far less data than its major competitor, Google Maps, saving users on download charges when they do want live access to the latest maps.

Ovi Maps will even remember previously downloaded maps to avoid re-downloading them again in the future, saving even more on data charges, something that users must pay for themselves, although at least we know that data usage will be minimal, thus avoiding high data charges.

So, why else does Nokia believe this truly is a gamechanger? Plot your way over to page 2 and more detail will be mapped out!