Is Ovi Maps going to wipe the floor with TomTom?

The new Ovi Maps, that now comes with free walk and drive directions for most of the planet, has been downloaded 1.4 million times in just a week. Here’s the press release.

A week. Wow!

“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 terrific news for Nokia — but also for third-party developers considering getting stuck into the Apps-For-Maps opportunities on the Ovi Maps platform. Speaking of which, here’s Rafe discussing that very subject just after the launch event last week:


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Here in the States quite a few people I’ve been meeting have commented (without prompting) that they’ll ‘be getting a Nokia for the car’ because of the free navigation. And that’s from a country that isn’t that aware of the Nokia brand.

I haven’t yet downloaded Ovi Maps for my N86 yet, I understand support will be made available for that shortly.

Meanwhile here’s the current list of compatible Nokia devices: Nokia 97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia E52, Nokia E55, Nokia E72, Nokia 5230, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6730 classic and Nokia X6.

For the latest device list and to download, the link you need is: http://www.nokia.com/maps.

About Ewan

Ewan is Founder and Editor of Mobile Industry Review. He writes about a wide variety of industry issues and is usually active on Twitter most days. You can read more about him or reach him with these details.

  • http://www.forum.nokia.com Contentqb

    And, don't forget, if you are using Ovi Maps with the voice navigation, you can download and enjoy the English-speaking “Surfer Dude” voice to be your loyal companion along the roads. It's totally awesome, dude. We were using it over this past weekend, and Surfer Dude was fantastic – my kids call him “Shawn”, man. Enjoy! – Jason

  • http://www.phonething.com/ Alex Kerr

    Hang on! It's all lies! This can't be true – the blogosphere and 'experts' have constantly told us all that Nokia owners don't download anything ever and the only app store that's working is iPhone's!

    /sarcasm :)

    Wipe the floor with TomTom? It's going to wipe the floor with everything nav-related, including Google's nascent and very limited attempts with their Maps Nav product.

  • Chris

    Rafe talks a lot of sense! my (selfish) question is will the next roll out onto more devices include Maemo?

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    A few months perhaps?

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