Even though it’s only been available for a couple of weeks, the latest version of Ovi Maps 3.03 has proved a massive hit, with over 1.4 million people downloading it in just over a week. It seems that even Nokia is surprised by the success, and it genuinely appears to have changed the sat-nav and smartphone market for good. To find out more, read on after the jump…

Since we first downloaded Ovi Maps 3.03, we’ve been staggered by just how good it is. Offering turn-by-turn navigation, verbal directions, and even features you’d normally have to pay for on dedicated sat-nav products – such as a Lonely Planet guide and traffic updates, it’s capable of turning your Nokia into a fully-fledged, all-singing, all-dancing satellite navigation device.

It shouldn’t really be a surprise that it’s turned out to be so popular then, with over one million downloads by the end of last week alone. It doesn’t look like slowing down in the near future either, with Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President of Nokia, pointing out that Ovi Maps is averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day.

Expressing Nokia’s surprise, Vanjoki went on to say: “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”.

With a predicted market of nearly 26 million people who use GPS on their mobile phones, there’s clearly even more potential for Ovi Maps to continue growing, and with the software now pre-installed on all new GPS-enabled Nokia smartphones, we wouldn’t bet against Ovi Maps going on to dominate the satellite navigation market.