This news came out in the middle of the night last night, unfortunately for us US-based journalists… which once again has to leave me wondering how important the North American market really is to Nokia? I guess, given that Nokia recently pulled the plug on its flagship stores in NY and Chicago, and add to the fact that you’ll rarely ever encounter a sales rep in T-Mobile or AT&T who is even familiar with an N95, N97, N900, yet alone knowing what the Symbian OS is should we be surprised?? Regardless, Nokia dominates on a global scale and so, this announcement will no doubt add to the already shaken-up mobile navigation market!
From the company… “Nokia has today announced plans to release a new version of Ovi Maps for its smartphones that includes high-end walk and drive navigation at no extra cost, available for download at www.nokia.com/maps. This move has the potential to 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.” FYI, Ovi Maps is immediately available for download for 10 Nokia handsets see more at www.nokia.com/maps – PS: and Nokia, perhaps next time you hold a Global web PR gig, you could make it a couple hours later so everyone can enjoy it!
