Nokia Maps Its Future; Says Service Has Been Downloaded More Than 1 Million Times


location based services
portable navigation devices

By Ingrid Lunden - Tue 11 Sep 2007 08:40 AM PST
The handset maker puts another iron into its service fire: today it released the newest version of its mapping software, Nokia Maps, which it is planning to incorporate into its Ovi mobile Internet platform. In addition to a new user interface, the latest version offers more detailed nearby and category searches, including full city guides, improved GPS, as well as a data counter to chart how many megabytes of traffic you are chomping in your quest to find the nearest Starbucks or ATM. release
Plans call for the map data to cover some 150 countries by the end of the year, with 50 of them navigable. The basic route-planning service is free, but other services are offered for a fee (presumably one that doesn’t get shared with the mobile operators). At the same time, Nokia also released a version of its Map Loader software for PCs, for sideloading maps rather than using the mobile networks to do the heavy lifting.
Nokia claims that the mobile maps apps each have been downloaded one million times since its mapping service since it first went live in February. If that’s true, it would make it potentially the most popular service on Ovi to date.