Nokia on Thursday has announced that it is offering a new version of Ovi Maps that will work on many Nokia smartphones, matching a competitive move by Google and dealing a blow to the leaders in the market for specialized devices, Garmin and TomTom.
Mr Vanjoki said that as a result, images were “one tenth of the size” but looked very similar. The service will cover 180 countries, and offer turn-by-turn services, including voice navigation, for 74 of those, including the U.S. and Canada. By March, all new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the software.
Nokia has targeted navigation–in 2008, the company bought digital map maker Navteq for $8.1 billion–as part of a strategy to make more money from mobile services and reduce its reliance on selling devices. However, it also hopes that selling useful services will draw more users to its phones, particularly to its smartphones, which have been losing market share to rivals.
Nokia is also offering the service on some existing handsets as well including the Nokia N97 mini, 5800 XpressMusic, 5800 Navigation Edition, E52, E55, E72, 5230, 6710 Navigator, 6730 classic and X6. Nokia reports that more handsets will be made compatible in the coming weeks with the N97 getting compatibility very soon.
Analysts at CCS Insight said the move could be viewed as a “competitive response to Google”, which also offers a free live sat-nav for its Nexus One handset and the Motorola Droid.
Through last September, Nokia’s share of the smart phone market, which measures handsets with advanced computing capability, slipped to 38 percent from 53 percent two years earlier.