Nokia is changing the way we interact with sat-nav forever, by stripping out the charges set around turn-by-turn and traffic updates in Ovi Maps and offering the service for free. This is today's 'Big Event' announcement, and with the Executive Vice President of Nokia on hand to explain, it's bigger than we thought as it clearly puts Nokia ahead of the game when is comes to sat-nav. Find out more about Nokia offering free sat-nav for all after the jump...
When Nokia bought global map makers Navteq back in 2008 little did we know that within two years it would be changing the way GPS and sat-nav works. With over 20 million Nokia devices already GPS enabled and using Ovi Maps, offering free turn-by-turn navigation and traffic updates globally is big news.
This will involve a new version of Ovi Maps for foot and drive navigation that effectively strips out the billing features of the current system. According to Nokia this will essentially nearly double the size of the current mobile navigation market. The new version of Ovi Maps includes high-end car and pedestrian navigation features, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for more than 180 countries.
Sure, Google Maps made the move earlier this year to strip out such pricing to North American users but today's announcement is a global initiative. What's more, while the Google Maps solution needs you to be online, Ovi Maps will will also work in offline mode, giving it a clear edge.
Nokia also takes the initiative by offering all future handsets with full European mapping provided in the box as standard. Anssi Vanjoki, the Executive Vice President of Nokia was on hand to explain that Ovi Maps will also incorporate Lonely Planet guides, truly helping it to distinguish it from other mapping services.
In addition to offering a new offline service, which Nokia claims puts it ahead of stand-alone sat-nav devices, the company has also introduced an updated way of downloading mapping on the move. Anssi Vanjoki claimed that the new vector graphics makes it very fast to download, and that it won't congest the networks - which should make it ideal for accessing directions on the fly.
The new Ovi software will be available from 10:30 today, although it's currently only supported on ten models. Others, including the Nokia N97, will be updated in the coming week. Unfortunately, if you're a Nokia N900 user, there's currently no support for the latest version of Ovi Maps.