Ovi Maps for Nokia Symbian S60

Ovi Maps have lately been on the headlines all over the tech media. The news of free offering has brought revolution in the navigation industry and TomTom and Garmin are thinking to pack up or find some other way around the Nokia free Ovi Maps solution. With the new Ovi Maps app, the company is hitting back, especially at Google. More importantly, it’s Nokia’s big chance to become the GPS device maker of choice in countries where standalone navigation devices are still hard to find.

“Maps and navigation are as core and natural in a phone as digital cameras,” Tero Ojanperä, Nokia’s EVP of services, said to me about Nokia’s new release. “We think that the mobile phone-based navigation market is about to take off in a big way. GPS is now commonplace and average consumers are perfectly comfortable with navigation systems, but more importantly complete solutions are finally coming to market.”

According to Ovi Maps offers both car navigation and pedestrian navigation. The free navigation service is initially available on 10 different models with detailed maps in over 180 countries. Included are services as traffic data and travel guides from Lonely Planet and Michelin. Integrated into the system there is also a location sharing feature that works directly with Facebook – a quick share tells your Facebook friends exactly where you are.