Nokia Maps

Nokia Maps

Developer(s)	Nokia
Stable release	v3.06 / June 22, 2010; 17 months ago (2010-June-22)[1]
Preview release	3.08[2]
Operating system	Symbian OS, Maemo, Meego Harmattan and Windows Phone 7
Platform	S60
Type	Web mapping
License	Proprietary freeware
Website	maps.nokia.com

Nokia Maps (formerly "Ovi Maps", Ovi meaning "a door" in Finnish) is a free mapping product and service by Nokia for its mobile phones and smartphone multimedia devices. Nokia Maps includes voice guided navigation for both pedestrians and drivers for 74 countries in 46 different languages and there are maps for over 180 countries.

Inception

The Nokia Maps product was first called Smart2Go, it was born initially as a generic 3D-map interface for access to tourist information on mobile terminals as part of EU Consortium named TellMaris in 2001^[3]. It was later renamed Nokia Maps, briefly called Ovi Maps, and now is called Nokia Maps again. It initially came into existence after Nokia made the smart2go application free to download when it acquired the German route planning software company Gate5 in August 2006.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Nokia Maps was expanded later, when Nokia acquired Chicago-based digital map supplier Navteq to build further on their smart2go mapping application.^{[9][10][11][12]} Maps is part of the Ovi brand of Nokia's Internet based online services. Ovi Maps provides offline maps which have the advantage of not requiring an active data connection or even network coverage on the handset. Maps can be loaded onto the phone with Nokia Ovi Suite^[13] (for Microsoft Windows only) or through a web browser^[14] (on any operating system), with recent versions, directly over-the-air.

On January 22 2010, Nokia released a new version of Ovi Maps (v3.03) that allowed free turn-by-turn navigation for the following cellphones (as of January 31, 2010): Nokia X6, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia E52, Nokia E55,Nokia E5-00 Nokia E72, Nokia 6730 classic, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia 5230 ^[15] and (without turn-by-turn navigation for the) Nokia N900 ^[16] Nokia will add more smartphones to the compatible devices list and E66, E71 and Nokia N97 has been added to the list. Nokia Ovi Maps have currently 27 million users, which is expected to double. Nokia has over 84 million GPS-enabled devices in the market^{[citation needed]}. Nokia has established one of the largest audiences for mobile location-based services. By the end of 2011 the market is expected to be getting toward 200 million.

In April of 2011, Nokia released a beta version of 3D maps^[17] that covers 20 cities in the world. By August 2011, the coverage has expanded to 23 cities. The 3D maps are said to be produced by combining LiDAR scanner data for 3D modeling with HD aerial photos for realistic texture mapping. The software runs as a plugin to the web browser. Unlike the 2D maps which were designed for Nokia mobile devices, the 3D maps require hardware supports that are not usually available on mobile devices. It is unclear how the 3D maps would fit in Nokia's corporate strategy.

The latest stable version of Nokia Maps is version 3.06 for S60v5 and Symbian^3 devices. It supports pinch-to-zoom for the latter operating system. 3.08 is in development with new features including weather, Live View to show points of interest around the user, Pulse to notify chosen people of the user's location and Public Transport.

Features

The latest version of Nokia Maps includes:

• Driving and walking turn-by-turn with international voice guidance
• Live traffic rerouting in some countries
• Live traffic visualization on the map in some countries
• Third-party content such as ViaMichelin and Lonely Planet
• Location-aware social networking to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and many other networks
• Street maps can be preloaded and used offline
• Street maps can be loaded via wifi from the phone
• Weather service
• Night View
• Satellite Maps
• Terrain Maps
• 3D buildings and 3D maps
• Public Transit Lines and routing in some cities
• Save favorites
• Sync favorites with Nokia Maps on the web to your mobile phone
• Heatmaps that shows you which areas are popular for food, nightlife, shopping and local sights in some cities
• City pages of 50 popular cities showing local time and weather conditions, along with fun facts from Lonely Planet and suggested Places

maps.nokia.com

http://maps.nokia.com

See also

• Ovi
• Mobile operating system
• Comparison of web map services

References

1. ^ "Compatibility and download". Ovi Maps. Nokia. http://europe.nokia.com/support/product-support/maps-support/compatibility-and-download#/nokia-n96/. Retrieved 22 July 2011. 
2. ^ http://betalabs.nokia.com/blog/2011/04/01/ovi-maps-v3-06-beta-trial-concluded
3. ^ TELLMARIS : Development of a 3D-map interface for tourist information on mobile computers, 5th FWP, ICT Research, European Commission, June 2001. $3.49EUR million
4. ^ Nokia Press Release - Nokia Delivers Free Downloadable Maps to the Mobile World
5. ^ Nokia Press Release - Run on Nokia's mapping and navigation application smart2go
6. ^ Register Hardware - Nokia to free route-planning app, maps
7. ^ AllAboutSymbian - Nokia announce free Maps (smart2go) solution
8. ^ The Inquirer - Nokia to offer free mapping software
9. ^ Cnet News - Nokia to buy Navteq for $8.1 billion
10. ^ InfoWorld - Nokia buys mapping service for $8.1 billion
11. ^ BBC News - Nokia to buy digital map company
12. ^ Bloomberg.com - Nokia to Buy Navteq for $8.1 Billion, Take on TomTom
13. ^ - Nokia Ovi Suite
14. ^ - Nokia Maps direct download links
15. ^ http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/
16. ^ - Nokia Ovi Maps
17. ^ http://maps.ovi.com/3d

External links

• Official website
• Ovi Maps download page