Nokia offers free lifetime navigation maps

Apparently, this news caused TomTom's stock to take a 15% dive initally, with a slight rebound later on. Free GPS software on smartphones can only diminish the market for companies like TomTom, unless they can work a deal with the manufacturers.
 
Lec510 is from "The Great White North", Gator.

No telco here offers true unlimited data plans. Ain't (lack of true) regulations or competition great? :(
 
its good to have free navigation but its route calculation sucks, you cannot navigate anywhere with it. it tells you strange routes. Nokia is years behind in providing tomtom or garmin quality routes.
 
I find the OVi maps work really well, I used my TomTom and my 5800 at the same time, and it was just as accurate, there aren't as many features and options but as a back up it'sfine, I used to have TomTom mobile on my 6680, and n73 and I'd say it's on a par with that.

The main drawback is that free doesn't necerssarily mean free as there are data charges, which are high, I used the maps in the house and it cost me ?5 for five mins on 02 PAYG as it uses a lot of data, it has to go online to locate and plan the route and then download it, so until such time as it's fully self contained, it is going to struggle
 
No, they both are not accurate, Nokia have the worst route calculation, I just use my 5800 in case of emergency otherwise I ll be wasting gas with OVI maps, they need few more years to make a good quality routing algorithm.
 
As the owner of a Nokia 5800 an Iphone 3g and now a Tom Tom 350 TM I have to say Nokia's nav solution is very competitive. I traveled to Florida twice last year and used Ovi maps and Garmin Xt on my 5800 and I reached all my destinations without any problems. My only concern is that my vision is not what it used to be and the touch screen on the 5800 is both small and not very readable under bright sunlight in the car and also not very responsive to touch, reasons why I just purchased the 350XL. Regarding the Iphone, it just plain sucks as a navigation device. Touch screen is very good as is the display, the only negatives I find on the Nokia, but, the Agps or whatever it is inside the Iphone that provides the gps reception is awful. Loses reception pretty easily, takes to long to notice if you miss an exit and route calculation is not to par, not even on the TomTom Iphone app. Let me put it this way, because of better bigger screen I rely on a pnd, my 5800 is my trusty backup in case I don't have my pnd at hand, and my Iphone, well, I would not use it for nav unless I am not in a hurry to get wherever I am going and only if nothing else is available. I am no expert but I am pretty sure the Iphone does not use a standard gps receiver, try to use location services with cell phone reception off and you will see what I mean. On my Nokia, I can even use it with no smartchip inside, and it will work perfectly as a gps device. I'd say if you own a supported Nokia device, you have a very good nav device for free :)
 
Yes you reached your destination in Florida, but how, if you used Nokia then i can say you spent too much on gas, See this post here where I have posted many screenshots Link

I also like Nokia only, No Iphone for me cuz apple is a company that robs people by selling crappy products.


More screenshots
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k164/saudiqbal/Nokia/Scr000014.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k164/saudiqbal/Scr000011.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k164/saudiqbal/Scr000008.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k164/saudiqbal/Scr000005.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k164/saudiqbal/Ovi_Maps_Drive02.jpg
 
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Wow that is pretty bad. I must confess I own and used both Garmin and Ovi maps on my nokia. Since I was not familiar with the areas where I used them, probably they did not send me on the easiest or shortest route. I will try them here in my home town to see if the same happens.
At least they did get me to my destination. :D
 
Thats why I took my Tomy when I went to Florida last week from Ohio otherwise I ll be driving on strange routes.
 
My wife has an N97, and we're grandfathered into unlimited data on AT&T. We played with the maps app for a while. It is an adequate application for navigation. Does all the basics reliably and with an easy learning curve.

The routing was typical of all the non-IQroutes devices out there: you get to you destination, but not in the most efficient way. Pretty much the same sub-par routing you'd see on a Garmin or Magellan.

Biggest problem was the GPS reception, although I hear they're warranty swapping all the first production run N97's to fix the antenna. My wife uses Facebook on the N97 all the time, and we never use the navigation, so we didn't return is as my wife doesn't want to be without the phone for a couple of weeks during the warranty swap.

But the real showstopper is the screen size. It's maybe 3.5" and that's generous. Any size under 6" and you're starting to compromise on safety, the 3.5" is just plain dangerous. I'm happy Massachusetts banned navigation on cell phones. I don't want my kid being run over because a driver is squinting at a Nokia screen.

On the plus side, the N97 is a fantastic device for pedestrian navigation. The walk mode is clear, convenient, and accurate. The walk mode POIs are very helpful for finding stores when strolling through a downtown area.
 
N97 mini

Well,

Used my Nokia N97 mini to navigate to a known location in Oz about 60 Km distance from my home.

Initially the Nokia showed a route that would have taken me to the destination with about 5 km greater distance and perhaps 10 minutes (maximum) greater time (and fuel in Oz costs about 30% more than in the USA, in the UK fuel costs about 30% more than in Oz (I think) - figure about $1.00 (OZ) extra) . But during the drive the phone corrected itself to a route that I would normally have taken (and which my Tomtom Go 930 had determined on a previous occasion. (It cost about 60kBytes in downloads during the travel). And unlimited life time upgrades at no cost could be a deal maker/breaker.

I looked at the map graphics that detail discrepancies and have to say that without information about increased travel distance or time, they are not very persuasive (IMV).

I'll continue using the Tomtom, owing to its larger screen, the IQ routing and the more frequent audible information (together with the fact that it came loaded with NA and Western Europe maps, despite the fact that the OVI maps are "world wide" or at least cover all the countries that I am likely to visit and drive in). But, if I did not already own a 930 then my attitude might be different. But the fact that my phone is "almost" always attached to my belt could just be the difference that puts the Tomtom on the shelf in the bedroom closet.

Having said this, since I updated my Tomtom map for Oz today at considrably lower cost than was available previously, I have to suspect that competition is having an effect.

Cheers

Go 930User
 

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