New Ovi Maps with free navigation races past 1 million downloads in a week

 

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Posted on 4 Feb 2010 at 11:19

As we reported a fortnight ago, Nokia has made its satnav software freely available to owners of compatible mobile phones. Since then, there have been over 1.4 million downloads, proving that users really want this capability. The one million mark was reached just one week after the launch.

Before 21st January, the software was free to use, but you had to pay if you wanted features such as navigation. The latest version of Ovi Maps includes driving and walking directions for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries. There are more than 6,000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world.

"We're averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day," said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia. "When we announced free walk & 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."

"This is great news for our 3rd party application developers. Within a matter of days there is an installed base of more than 1 million active users all potentially hungry for new and innovative location-aware apps," continued Anssi Vanjoki. "For the operators, too, there is a growing opportunity to sell more data plans and a complete navigation package to existing and new customers."

As of the end of January, the top five countries downloading the new version of Ovi Maps were China, Italy, UK, Germany and Spain. The top five most popular Nokia devices installing the download were Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia N97, Nokia 5230 and Nokia E72.

"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, VP & Principal Analyst at research firm Canalys.

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.

Author: Jim Martin