Today , 21/1/2010 , Nokia set the Navigation free , unbound by licensing fees , Nokia users can use Drive and Walk Navigation for free in 180 countries with Voice Turn by Turn Navigation available for 74 countries , 46 Different languages and Traffic Information available for more than 10 countries all Gratis , for none , Zero cost , say it in any language it’s FREE .
According to Nokia’s Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki “ Why have multiple devices that work with in only one country or region ? Put it all together make it free, make it global , and you almost double the potential size of the mobile navigation market “
According to research firm Canalys , their are currently 27 million mobile phone user using GPS on their mobile phones and with Nokia’s announcement , Nokia expects the number to grow to 50 million in a short period of time . With having 51 % of the share of total 163 million mobile phones sold in 2009 Nokia holds the major market share and is the world’s leading GPS Units and services provider .
What Nokia will benefit by giving out Navigation Licenses for free which until yesterday were being sold on annual basis ?
What we think it’s the reach , Nokia is not only about Devices , they have also entered the services segment under the umbrella of OVI providing Free Email through OVI Mail , Free 10 GB Online storage and access to files store on computer through OVI Files , Free Cloud based data collection through OVI Contacts , a Free Media sharing space through OVI Share and free Communications platform on OVI Chat , only Navigation was left as a paid application and it’s also set free.
With all these services available for free , Nokia develops a user base ‘addicted’ to them and with free access actively using them as part of their daily life and making them routine , they develop a loyal customer base which are bound by OVI , Nokia wants customers to think OVI and live by OVI day and night , where ever they are what ever they are doing , Nokia wants them to be dependent on OVI.
This OVI dependency brings on new sales of OVI compatible ‘smartphones’ and with word of mouth advertising by OVI users an expected large number of converts from Apple , Blackberry and Android based devices .
Nokia is not new in this game of ‘Free’ they just improved it ,Hotmail was the first landmark with Free email for all , followed by Yahoo and many others , than came Google , a search Engine which gave Free a new meaning , a large capacity email account , Picture sharing on Picassa , Video on Youtube and documents on Google Docs everything was free and Google made money from it too through Advertising and offering business based services .
Nokia went a step further with the Navigation , where it’s closest free competitor Google through it’s Google Maps had been providing turn by turn DIRECTIONS , Nokia is now providing turn by turn Voice based NAVIGATION
The latest Ovi Maps are available at http://maps.nokia.com/explore-services/ovi-maps/downloads-and-services#/default/
so whip out your
- X6
- N97 Mini
- E72
- E55
- E52
- 6230 Classic
- 6710 Navigator
- 5800 Xpress Music
- 5800 Navigation Edition
- 5230
yeah only 10 devices are supported for now with more to be updated later 
The download is about 7.8 mb and takes a couple of min to install , how is the new OVI Navigation on Nokia , well it works well and need a separate post for it 
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