Ovi Maps free navigation gets 1 million downloads in a week
Posted by: Phat^Trance in Nokia, Press releases
Nokia has today announced that since the 21 January 2010 launch of the new version of Ovi Maps with free walk and drive navigation, there have been over 1.4 million downloads. The one million mark was reached just one week after the launch.
“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.”
The success of the new version Ovi Maps is a key part of Nokia’s strategy to lead the market in mobile maps, navigation and location-based services. By leveraging its investment in NAVTEQ, Nokia has been able to remove the costs associated with navigation for drivers and pedestrians and is quickly activating a massive user base to which it can offer new location features, content and services.
“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 31 January 2010 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.
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. There are more than 6000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world. Lonely Planet and Michelin guides have information on more than 1,000 destinations globally.
“The top five most popular Nokia devices installing the download were: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia N97, Nokia 5230 and Nokia E72.”
If they would have released the Nokia Maps build (3.03) for more than 10 devices, they would have even more downloads/phone.
But I guess they also thought: “if we release this new version for all compatible devices at once, it is most likely that the servers will crash because of the server load so it would be smart for us to release it only for a couple of high end devices, we will let the people download it for a few weeks and, step by step, we will also add the rest of the devices. ” It’s a smart decision but, because of that, a lot of people (including me) would be disappointed about the lack of support for their phones. I hope Nokia will release soon this new version for other compatible devices as well.
it was a great move made by Nokia. I now recommend Nokia to all of my friends because they just keep getting better.
Probably people like me downloading twice… because the first time we couldn’t believe it forces its install to C
Stupid Nokia.
Come on Nokia give us the proper N900 version!
Ironic that you have a Picture of the N900 in this Article. Cause the N900 hasn’t even any kind of Voice-Guided Navigation
BizKit –> yeah i know, but that pic is so sexy that i had to use it, haha
PhatTrance –> True ^^
“Probably people like me downloading twice… because the first time we couldn’t believe it forces its install to C:\ drive”.
Well, version 3.03 it’s an upgrade to version 3.01. Since Nokia Maps it’s a native application (it can never be completely removed) and since the initial version is installed on the C:\ drive a.k.a. the phone memory, the upgrade version will also be installed on the last mentioned drive. It’s not a third part application (which you can install whenever you want), it’s an upgrade to a built-in application.
@arsradu – Yeah; I know. It’d still be nice if they COULD install it to E. What’s the point in 32Gb storage if all the pre-installed apps clutter up the memory and turn it into an epic pile of shite?
I’ve downloaded the version for the 5230 and installed on my 5530
but I downloaded it twice times cause of trouble… ^^
keep going nokia
@w- I’m not 100% sure about it but, an upgrade to an application should basically replace the current version of that application and add new files to it(or just replace the current ones with bigger/smaller ones). Usually the files are bigger because new lines of code have been added.
Now,in your care,i don’t think,for example Nokia Maps,will be installed separately to the first version so,if the initial size of the application was 3200 kB, the new size shouldn’t be much bigger (but of course it depends on the update).
So,the final conclusion would be that,if u only update the current installed applications (and not install new ones), the size of the available free space on the phone memory shouldn’t radically decrease.
But,i still have to admit it would be nice to have the possibility to install those updates on the memory card too.
I’ve heard that the app isn’t compatible with the N900.. (which is a shame!!) So why’s the first picture in this post of an N900?! That’s kind of irrelevant..
@Marcee – because Phat liked it.
) See Comment #6