Money Matters, Simplified.
Nokia to introduce free GPS navigation application from March
by Pankhuri kapoor - January 22, 2010 - comments
Ovi Maps facilitates downloading of maps from a computer on a cell phone from the Ovi Maps applications' webpage. High-end car and pedestrian features like turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries in 46 languages will be the main highlight of the new version.
Espoo, Helinski, January 22 -- Finland-based Nokia Corporation has introduced a new and free premium version of its Ovi Maps application in its smartphones that will toughen the competition for its contemporaries in the GPS market.
The announcement that was officially made on Thursday was about the navigation facility that will be made available in some versions of the handsets from March when the fresh stocks of the handsets arrive in the market.
The Ovi Maps application will be initially available for download in 10 Nokia handsets including the N97 mini, 5800 ExpressMusic, Nokia X6 and E72.
Reportedly, Ovi Maps facilitates downloading of maps from a computer on a cell phone from the Ovi Maps applications webpage. High-end car and pedestrian features like turn by turn voice guidance for 74 countries in 46 languages will be the main highlight of the new version.
Traffic information and detailed maps of more than 180 countries will be included in the free navigation application.
A breakthrough in the navigation world
Chrisof Hellmis, the vice president for location services at Nokia, informs, “Before, navigation was always a premium service, which had to be paid for by the end user or the mobile operator.”
“As of today, navigation is free. You have a full-blown navigation system on the screen of your mobile phone,” he adds.
The service being provided by the mobile manufacturing company will see an upsurge in the global installed base for GPS navigation on cell phones from 27 million to more than 50 million.
The Mobile Wars
Market analysts opine that the free GPS navigation service being introduced by Nokia could directly affect the sales of competitors like Garmin Ltd. and TomTom.
The announcement alone has led to a decline in the share value of both these companies with TomTom witnessing 11 percent drop in Amsterdam and Garmin seeing a 5.5 percent drop on the NASDAQ exchange.
It will also affect the market of Google and Motorola who have recently launched their android-based smartphones in the market.
“Nokia's done incredibly bad in the U.S., but I wonder if this free navigation might give them the edge to increase smartphone market share there,” reports Dominique Bonte, an analyst at the ABI Research.
“The companies making Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) like Garmin and TomTom won't disappear because of Nokia and Google, but will have to be incredibly inventive to keep designing very exceptional devices. PNDs will survive, although I can't see much growth in that segment,” she concluded.