Since its recent launch, the new version of Ovi Maps has been downloaded more than 1.4 million times, Nokia (News - Alert) reportedly said in a report. The 1 million milestone was achieved within the first week of the launch.
Ovi Maps, which launched for free last month, are equipped with free walk and drive navigation, according to a TMCnet report.
'We're averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,' Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president, Nokia, said. '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.'
The popularity of Ovi Maps has positioned Nokia as a leader in the mobile maps, navigation and location-based services market. By investing in NAVTEQ (News - Alert), Nokia has successfully eliminated the costs associated with navigation for drivers and pedestrians, allowing it to offer new location features, content and services to a wide user base.
'This is great news for our third 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,' Vanjoki said. '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 Jan. 31, 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,” Chris Jones, vice president and principal analyst at research firm Canalys. “We estimate there were already 25.9 million people actively using GPS navigation on their mobile phones at the end of 2009.'
All new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will come enabled with 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, starting next month
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. It boasts more than 6000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world. What’s more Lonely Planet and Michelin guides have information on more than 1,000 destinations globally.
Divya Narain is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Divya’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Amy Tierney
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