Nokia To Make GPS Navigation Free On Smartphones 300
mliu writes "In what is sure to be a blow to the already beleaguered stand-alone GPS market, Nokia, the global leader in smartphone market share, has released a fully offline-enabled free GPS navigation and mapping application for its Symbian smartphones. Furthermore, the application also includes Lonely Planet and Michelin guides. Unfortunately, the N900, which is beloved by geeks for its Maemo Linux-based operating system, has not seen any of the navigation love so far. With Google's release of Google Navigation for Android smartphones, and now Nokia doing one better and releasing an offline-enabled navigation application, hopefully this is the start of a trend where this becomes an expected component of any smartphone."
Navigation on Nokia phones works very well (Score:3, Informative)
My experience has so far been rather positive. Even an old N82 is an adequate replacement for a dedicated GPS, IMHO.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The aviation screen is just software, but Garmin charges an arm and a leg for it. It would be great to have a rough altimeter, airspeed indicator along with the map as a backup while up there.
Re: (Score:2)
Offline enabled (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what's impressive about this Nokia solution. It's the first free solution that allows for downloading the map database to your phone for offline usage.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Although it still lacks satellite data.
Which is understandable, because, as a Nokia guy did put it, that would be huuuge!
(Although I thing you should still be able to download it for your city.)
But I already use that free offline data since last month, because I had the chance to get a special offer. Which also included free routing for walking. (The one I need.) So apart from the tiny A-GPS data, and the little bit, that Maps Booster* takes, I have zero data transfer anymore.
___
* Maps Booster is a W-LAN-ba
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Dropped calls = dropped GPS directions"
I am assuming that since they call it "GPS" navigation that it doesn't use cell towers for location information but satellites, so this shouldn't be a problem.
Even if you cannot call for help, you at least know which direction to go to find it.
Considering that 911 service requires the use of GPS, and has for YEARS, this is long overdue and should have been on the market years ago.
I can only assume that some back-room deals/agreements have been the only thing preventin
Re: (Score:2)
Its because on some phones, the GPS map data is stored server side.
I know my old Pantech Slate offered this, I could download a GPS application, but all of the maps and roads were stored on a server at AT&T, and it wouldn't work outside of a data connection via the cell service.
What about live traffic updates (Score:2, Interesting)
I recently drove from Portland OR to SF BayArea and was re-routed around traffic backups while in transit. This was with the TomTom Live system. Will phone based GPS apps do that and let me talk on the phone? I don't get this rush to put everything in a phone.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You don't get the convenience of having so much in one small package at your fingertips whenever you want it? .. wow
Re: (Score:2)
You don't get the convenience of having so much in one small package at your fingertips whenever you want it? .. wow
Not if it means my passenger can't navigate and have a phone conversation at the same time, no.
It might be hard to see the screen while it's held up to their ear, no?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I dont either.
I'd rather use a proper camera that takes good pictures and not some crappy phone.
I'd rather use a proper computer to web browse and no some tiny screened phone with an awful keyboard I cant use.
I'd rather use a media player to play a movie and not some tiny picture on a phone.
If I want something to do a job, I find the best tool for the job, not one tool that tries to do everything (and badly).
I still use a Nokia 6210 with a green screen because I use it as a phone. Its the best phone I've e
Re:What about live traffic updates (Score:5, Insightful)
But are you carrying all of those with you all of the time?
Being able to browse the web WHEREVER or take a picture NOW (maybe even pictures of your car after it was hit by somebody, or their license plate) is useful. I say this as someone who thinks the monthly rates are very expensive btw. (I have one supplied by work now.)
Re:What about live traffic updates (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly, the best camera is the one you have on you at the time.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
For the sake of us all: Please do not drive and talk on the phone at the same time.
Re: (Score:2)
People talk on the phone while driving. Get over it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
From what I've seen, the iphone won't reroute you in transit unless you tell it to get new directions. It does show traffic, one would hope it calculates that.
My standalone magellan does not have traffic reports at all. It could have, for extra dollars a year. It also doesn't get updated without more fees, and after a few years that becomes annoying. Granted, the iphone data plan is not exactly free, the fees for the magellan's subscription and a dumbphone would probably be less.
I don't get this rush to put everything in a phone.
For me at least, I never
Re: (Score:2)
I use a Garmin 60CSx on my motorcycle. It scre
Offline GPS? (Score:2)
Re:Offline GPS? (Score:4, Insightful)
Apparently not that much, since they already fit in a GPS device. I'm pretty sure my Garmin doesn't have a huge multi-gig flash drive, as old as it is. Not to mention they could just cache- most people don't travel more than 100 miles frequently, they could download the area where you're at on first use, then update it if and only if you move twoards the edges of that zone (basically in ral time for a long car ride, after landing for an airplane).
Re: (Score:2)
I actually have Garmin on my windows mobile (ATT Fuze) - so it's possible to do this.
What would be cool from my perspective (to get me off Garmin totally:)
1. turn by turn by google (already doing this on other OS/devices)
2. Store my route/maps to cover the route and then some in case of loss of signal (x miles in each direction?)
Re: (Score:2)
We have a PostGIS database and just using the data available from the USGS and various state mapping agencies, our database is around 300 MB for roads, town, and zip code boundaries for the United States. Granted I'm sure that will be increasing as more data is added. It is an on going process.
Re: (Score:2)
Plenty of memory on a micro-sd card
Re: (Score:2)
My nokia maps installation gave me the choice of what maps I wanted available offline (it could download others) I could choose it by country and in the US I could choose state (and maybe even city). I added the entire US (or maybe north america). the cities folder on my microsd card is currently sitting at 1.4GB although it told me 1.2 would be used. I think the world was about 8gb.
I don't
Re:Offline GPS? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Huh? The TomTom app for iPhone is 1GB. My Garmin's map update is 4. I could fit that map 4 times over on my iPhone.
Will never buy standalone again. (Score:5, Insightful)
When iPhone came out with free navigation, even if Garmin is a lot better, I concluded that I will never buy a standalone:
- GPS navigator
- compact camera.
- camcorder.
- watch
- document scanner
- portable game console
- mp3 player, video player
- a bunch of other things from last century like voice recorder, calculator, radio etc.
With 8Gb camera, 720p video, GPS navigator, I will be better off upgrading the phone every year than buying all these devices every 3 years. I am sure it will not take more than 2 years for a feature in my phone to beat the standalone device in features/functionality, and best of all, I will have it in my hand when I need it, not in a drawer somewhere.
Re: (Score:2)
While I agree with your sentiments, what is an 8Gb camera? Is that like a 1.6GHz hard drive?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You can name your camera and hard drive whatever crazy combination of letters and numbers you want.
(He was of course referring to the storage size of the iphone.)
Re: (Score:2)
8Gb seems a bit small. Photos, music, and applications will fill up 1GB pretty quickly. /nitpick
Re:Will never buy standalone again. (Score:5, Insightful)
- GPS navigator
- compact camera.
- camcorder.
- watch
- document scanner
- portable game console
- mp3 player, video player
- a bunch of other things from last century like voice recorder, calculator, radio etc.
Your GPS doesn't get traffic data.
Your camera has a horribly small lens and is good only for taking 4x6 photos.
Your watch can't be kept with you while doing anything active.
Your document scanner is horrible quality.
Your portable game console is limited by having touchscreen only and no physical controls.
Using your mp3 player/video player (and any of the above) will deplete your phone battery so you can't receive calls.
etc.
I get that it may work for you, but there's a good market for standalone devices for a reason.
Re: (Score:2)
Google maps on my Blackberry gets traffic updates. The accuracy seems to be about 15 to 30 minutes. The camera is the one thing I would not sacrifice as an inclusion in the phone - the lens is just far too bad.
Hate to tell you... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Your GPS doesn't get traffic data.
Yes it does. My standalone GPS (magellan) on the other hand, doesn't.
Your camera has a horribly small lens and is good only for taking 4x6 photos.
Your watch can't be kept with you while doing anything active.
Your document scanner is horrible quality.
Your portable game console is limited by having touchscreen only and no physical controls.
All of these features are better (read: PRESENT) in the phone and not in the GPS. Also, all of the devices I have which individually do those other things do everything else much worse.
And I usually don't bring all those things with me wherever I go.
Re: (Score:2)
Your GPS doesn't get traffic data.
The iPhone? Yah it does, in my city at least. (Seattle.)
Not to dispute your point, but it would help your point if you actually made sure your examples were correct.
Re: (Score:2)
At this point, the stand alone GPS industry is in trouble. It came of age too late. A stand alone GPS has a few advantages, some of which may disappear:
GPS will stick around for some applications. A in-dash GPS will always have a bigger screen than your phone. No one would be stupid eno
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Using my own nokia xm5800 and tomtom's 4 inch mid-range navigator I had to use before it I have to note that you're ignorant of the current form factors in GPS world vs nokia phones, at least as far as Europe is concerned.
- it's smaller then any decent navigator on the market, in every aspect. Pretty much any autonavi sold nowadays has a 4 inch screen, and is usually fairly heavy (several hundred grams) and bulky. It's not something that will fit your pocket. My 5800 even fits into the small right side "poc
Re: (Score:2)
The Motorola Droid has some of the features (like voice navigation).
I used Google Maps because it's what I'm familiar with, and it works fine for my light needs. But there is better software out there for the iPhone (and other phones) to provide the additional features a stand alone GPS device has such as mapping data without relying on the cell network.
People may still upgrade their GPS software if they have bigger needs, but what's been happening in cell phones (as well as, to a lesser degree, more and
Re: (Score:2)
Most aren't, but they can be. A GPS device could be made quite small, where as a phone has to be big enough to be usable against the face. Most today seem to be designed for use in-car where larger size is beneficial. For a hiker/jogger/etc, a small map gizmo, perhaps the size of a large men's watch could be useful.
As for durable, I'm thinking of the ruggedized versions made for hikers/campers/etc.
Single Point of Failure (Score:2)
As long as you are fine with having a single point of failure then go for it. I'll stick to my standalone GPS and my MP3 Player to augment my smartphone.
A toolbox > a multitool. The multitool is great for quick fixes, but nothing replaces using the right tool for the right job, not to mention my aforementioned single point of failure problem.
Re: (Score:2)
As long as you are fine with having a single point of failure...
Speaking for myself, I usually lose these gadgets before they fail with one exception; for some reason I was able to hang on to my ancient RCA 5 gig b/w display usb mp3 player for something like 6 years. It finally gave me a "File system failure" error that a reset couldn't correct. Other than that, my gadget collection is one long list of lost or stolen devices over the years, not one of them "failed" in the broken sense. Unless you can say my
Re: (Score:2)
Undercutting the market? (Score:2)
While I'm all for this (because what guy doesn't want free GPS on his phone?) isn't there an aspect of it that paints Nokia as essentially undercutting the entire GPS market? The leader in smartphones is now offering a product for free - am I wrong in thinking that there's something not so nice in relation to the market going on there? I'm thinking of a cross between Microsoft and steel dumping.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
No more concern than what Google is doing then.. they repeat the same give away method everywhere they turn and decimate business models of any already there making it VERY skewed.
With quarterly profit just announced US$1 Billion + they can afford to do this at competitors detriment who rely on "real" income in the normal way and who dont have benefit of large enough sise for ad support.
Good on someone with capacity to stick something back to Google for a change if thats what its going to do.
Re: (Score:2)
It can't be dumping, which is selling comparable commodities below cost. (These measurements don't make a lot of sense when we're talking software -- what is the per-unit "cost" of making an instance of software that runs on a phone? All the physical items for GPS navigation are already there, and break-even cost of development depends on how many instances of the software are produced, so per-unit costs go down when you give it away.)
And Nokia may be huge, but with strong competitors in Apple and Google,
Re:Undercutting the market? (Score:5, Insightful)
GPS apps have been insanely overpriced. There was maybe justification for paying $100 for an actual GPS receiver and dedicated computer plus software, but charing $100 for some map data and a simple app to display it was never going to be a tenable practice. The navigation companies milked their hardware for a few years and got to milk their software for a year or so. Now they're going to have to compete.
Re: (Score:2)
Calling $100 for a dedicated GPS with touchscreen AND the map licensing, all the R&D for routing, lane guidance, etc "maybe" justified is pretty crazy if you ask me. The $199 price point is a fairly sweet one.
Offline is less important than real-time updates (Score:2)
There are very few times when off-line maps are useful in a car. For those times, there are real GPS units (ones that have batteries that last for 16 hours instead of 2 hours and can survive a fall or water or the like). The thing that makes Google maps navigation so useful to me (on my Droid) are the live traffic updates. Plus, I don't have to worry about downloading maps onto my cell phone. Everything is updated all the time, and I can have my phone re-route me on alternate routes based on current traffic
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Offline is less important than real-time update (Score:2, Informative)
Ovi Maps does real-time online map downloads just fine, along with real-time online traffic updates, weather, events, location sharing, etc. However, by allowing you to store maps on the memory card (a few gig can cover the US and most of Europe) you aren't *forced* to be online to use it. Handy for those treks into more rural areas (where 3G coverage, not to mention road signs, is a luxury and offline nav becomes really beneficial). Also nice when you're off-network and don't want to pay crazy data roaming
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
There are very few times when off-line maps are useful in a car.
Do they put crack in the water where you live, or do you have to go down and buy it off the street?
Re: (Score:2)
Spewing coffee out of my nose and onto my laptop is not fun!
Standalone GPS (Score:5, Insightful)
I own an openmoko and my wife owns an HTC Magic, running android. I know five or so people who own iPhones. I am yet to see a device which can replace my Garmin etrex.
I regularly attach the garmin to the deck of my sea kayak and dunk it in the ocean. I don't plan on doing that to a smart phone.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I regularly attach the garmin to the deck of my sea kayak and dunk it in the ocean. I don't plan on doing that to a smart phone.
Meanwhile, I refuse to buy another smartphone until I can get one that I can attach to the deck of a sea kayak and dunk it in the ocean. Just got a nokia 1661... it makes calls and rings alarms, and was twenty bucks. I'd like more features, but I'd like them on a device that's not a fragile piece of shit as nearly all electronics seem to be.
Re: (Score:2)
The foretrex is wrist mounted so its actually more convenient than an all in one device, unless you feel like strapping an iphone to your wrist.
The market will survive (Score:2)
Without a doubt the market for standalone GPS units will survive, but the question is in what form. It would be a huge loss for Garmin et al if they're reduced to making rugged specialty GPS devices while smartphones take over the lucrative in-car navigation that represents 99% of consumer usage.
The advantages of a GFS device with a data connection are numerous. Live traffic, live updates, live information (such as gas prices). Those are all download-oriented, but many of the promising usages are bidirec
Re:Standalone GPS (Score:4, Interesting)
I differ about a previous comment of not buying another stand alone in my life, as I appreciate photography and cellphones cameras are far from a stand alone one. Nokia has been doing a good work also there (Pictures of my iPhone suck real bad compared to my girlfriend's E75).
Re: (Score:2)
TomTom on the iPhone is better than my old Teletype GPS, and it is better than standalone TomTom and Garmins I have used. It doesn't drop due to incoming calls either, because I jailbroke my phone and installed backgrounder so I could force the phone to not suspend the app. It's by far the best street navigation GPS solution I've used.
Re: (Score:2)
standalone GPS companies are going to shrink, which means they will have less $ for r&d, which means their features will start to lag behind smart phone GPS software. in other words, a dow
Re:Standalone GPS (Score:4, Insightful)
Waterproof up to one meter, and it floats so no worries about loosing it in the water. Also shock resistant and crush resistant. I bought it many years ago for the palm I've used then, and I was happy to see that the N800 was also usable in it. I hope the N900 is as well since I plan on getting one at some point, but it should be, since its about the same size.
I use my N800 as a GPS outside sometimes, and use this so I don't have to worry about dropping it in a moist terrain or if it starts raining. I also use it for reading ebooks when taking a bath.
So a smartphone/pda doesn't have to be unusable in conditions like the ones you describe. Altough I'm not sure if you could make phonecalls while its inside the shield, it might block the sound waves too much. Touchscreen devices work great on it, since one side has a soft transparent plastic film over where the screen is. Buttons on the front work well trough it too. Buttons on the side or top are not reachable however.
I did some tests with mine, among other things leaving it at the bottom of my bathtub for 24 hours with something heavy on it to make it stay at the bottom. No moisture got in.
So pdas/smartphones aren't necceserily useless in the conditions you describe, you just have to have the right gear for it.
Re:Standalone GPS (Score:4, Interesting)
Not so much for navigation as for keeping track of movement. For example if I am in a current I may not know about it visually for a while, but the GPS will tell me straight away what is going on.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm guessing not even 1% of GPS users need a waterproof device.
Maybe but they were the original market for dedicated GPS devices anyway.
Sprint + WebOS +GPS is already "free" (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Unless users are way out in nowhere, those users already have most all of the same features of a stand-alone GPS.
On the other hand, if I'm way out in nowhere, I definitely need directions in order to get somewhere. That's where downloadable maps shine.
Also, keeping that connection open to the Internet in order to get your maps probably does not do wonders for your battery life. This isn't a big deal if you're in a car, granted, but some of us use alternate means of transportation.
Re: (Score:2)
Unless users are way out in nowhere, those users already have most all of the same features of a stand-alone GPS.
On the other hand, if I'm way out in nowhere, I definitely need directions in order to get somewhere. That's where downloadable maps shine.
In my definition of nowhere, communications (other than satellite comms) won't be working so downloading won't work.
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry--I didn't say that correctly. I meant "previously downloaded" maps shine (ie maps stored on the phone).
Mea culpa.
Re: (Score:2)
I am not "wrong" for any reason. I said that Sprint + WebOS already has "free" GPS/Nav services. That has nothing to do with Nokia or Android phones. If I bought an unlocked Nokia GSM phone, that phone can't be used on Verizon or Sprint. But that has little to do with anything I said.
Maybe it will be good? (Score:2)
Maybe now that they're planning to make it free, it won't be so deplorably poor?
I have an E71 and I'd abandoned Nokia's mapping solutions because a) it seems impossible to search for anything and b) street numbers seem to have no relation to your physical position.
Nokia makes very good hardware and the operating system seems solid, but the software is incredibly half-baked. It's like the developers give when they've met the bare-minimum specifications and move on. In the case of GPS, I've yet to see another
What, no E75 love? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What, no E75 love? Huh? (Score:2)
That's doubtful because my e71 has maps/gps. Do you have Windows and have you installed their middleware? From there, you should be able to get GPS maps installed.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Provider dependent? (Score:2)
Just wondering if this is provider dependent. Can the provider ask or change the GPS feature on the phone to simply turn it off unless you pay them x per month? And if you turn off the phone and use GPS, I assume there won't be any roaming charges since your phone is talking to the GPS satellite? I plan on travelling more often to the US (from Canada) and was hoping a GPS plus local maps on a smartphone would be handy.
I'd like to get a GPS since I've seen some software you can add to some smart phones to lo
Re:Provider dependent? Nope. (Score:2)
I have an unlocked e71 on AT&T's network. Nokia provides everything. You do need Windows as an intermediary between nokia's map website and the phone.
Premature Prediction (Score:2)
two-way chatter (Score:2)
But I think my resistance was futile since even new stand-alone GPS units are coming with built-in 'network access' for traffic, weather, and who only know what else. I long f
My e71 already does this (Score:4, Informative)
Seriously, you don't know what you guys are missing with Nokia/Symbian phones.
-Media players play DRM free files.
-Easy 802.11 access/use
-Decent 'office' application. Opens my text files, that's all I care about.
-SMTP support. I know they HAD crackberry support on my old communicator. I assume it's still available.
-Apps for a sysadmin.
-Solid mobile java support
-GPS, directions, and all that. However, you need windows as an intermediary between the phone and nokia's maps.
-Symbian is years ahead of Apple or Google's OS. Multiple apps open at the same time, global cut + paste.
I assume later model phones will do all of this too. It's just that Nokia appears to have a very hard time in the U.S.
Re: (Score:2)
Eh? GPS isn't needed for E911 compliance, though it is certainly a very common way to achieve it. More details here. [wikipedia.org]
Re:Outdated (Score:5, Informative)
You overestimate their loss of marketshare. The smartphone market is a tiny part of the overall phone market, and its only there that they've lost anything at all. They're still the 800 lbs gorilla.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Eventually, non-smartphones will fade away.
Maybe the price of the phone is decreasing, but the monthly fees are actually increasing. Sure I would like a smart phone, but a smart phone costs 2-3* as much per month. Currently I pay $70 for 2 cell-phones per month ($35). The Droid plan I was looking at was $75 per line, and the iPhone was around $90 per line (last I checked).
Re: (Score:2)
Non-smartphones went out years ago (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, but their revenue has dropped. In the past year they have lost billions of Euros
Why, anyone would think there wasn't this great big recession. Is that really a reason to assume that they're going to stop updating, therefore this is worthless? Face it, you're just spreading FUD. One could make the same claim of any navigation system.
have only recently came out with a good competitor phone to Android, the iPhone and the Pre and really, "dumb" phones are on the way out.
But now you're conflating market success, with your own personal opinion. Which are we debating? If the latter, here's mine - my old Motorola V980 from 2005 did things the Iphone took years to catch up on, and now Nokia have the 5800 which works just as well as any Iphone, at half the price. (Android isn't a phone, it's an OS, btw.)
really, "dumb" phones are on the way out. Think about it, 5 years ago, unless you were a corporate user, you didn't get a smartphone. Today, almost everyone wants a smartphone, and prices for the phones are sharply declining. Eventually, non-smartphones will fade away.
So what's your definition of smartphone?
If you're defining smartphone as "not a dumbphone" then non-smartphones died years ago. Any feature phone can run apps, access the Internet, they run operating systems and it's been this way for at least 5 years. Any phone today (except the absolute bottom of the market) is a smartphone, in the sense of what we once understood by the term. If we define smartphone in terms of features, then either all feature phones are smartphones, or the Iphone doesn't deserve to be a smartphone.
In this market, Nokia are still solid.
But when you see news articles talking about the smartphone market, they don't mean this, they simply mean some ill-defined category that covers the most expensive phones. Therefore, "smartphone" is simply the high end of whatever phones are available at the time, therefore it will never go away (unless all phones become dirt cheap). And it will also never be the case that everyone will have "smartphones" by this definition, because there'll still be people who buy the lower end phones.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok, but more importantly Nokias profit are slipping, while Apple now make more profit with their iphone, than Nokia do with ALL their phones.
Profit is the most important measure of how well a company is doing, and Nokia are suffering.
That is why the recently announced that they are going to concentrate more on smartphones. That is where the money is. Of course, they might be too late, just like Microsoft.
N900 might be an amazing phone, technically, but most people don't, and never have cared about that. The
Re:Non-smartphones went out years ago (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't go by Nokia's lack of popularity in the US, and the hyperbole of largely American tech news websites, who have never seen a smartphone before 2007.
Nokia still has 39% of the smartphone market worldwide [blogs.com]
Re:Non-smartphones went out years ago (Score:4, Insightful)
N900 might be an amazing phone, technically, but most people don't, and never have cared about that. They care about how nice it is to use. Most people here still don't seem to understand that.
Perhaps, but owning an N900 I can say that it is a pleasure to use. The interface is fairly close to the iPhone in terms of polish. I believe the main reason most people haven't adopted it is that it's fairly thick (2 cm), and also kind of heavy (181g).
On a side note the submitter is wrong - the N900 has Ovi Maps built into the OS, and a new version was released today as part of a major update. The only downside is that it doesn't support outputting the directions as audio, which would be useful when driving. It's completely feasible too, since espeak has been ported to Maemo.
Re:Outdated (Score:4, Interesting)
This is why its important to keep projects like http://www.openstreetmap.org/ [openstreetmap.org] going, even if just to keep them on their toes
Re:Outdated (Score:5, Informative)
You do realize that Nokia owns Navteq which re-sells the map data to other companies. Free doesn't mean that it can't be monetized and profitable.
everyone else is doing it, plus legal reasons. (Score:2)
The problem is, will Nokia keep on updating their free directions? Generally, when you have a large company that seems to be losing money and marketshare left and right they will release a lot of paid things for free in order to not have to update them or maintain them as much as a paid product.
I think this is being done for two reasons:
1)Everyone else is doing it. 2)It makes it more difficult to legislate using phone while driving illegal. Customers (voters) will be pissed if they're used to using th
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
It also says maps for N900 does not support navigation.
Re:Apple, Not Nokia Is The Leader (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed - everyone knows the only useful measure here of market success is "Which company gets more market share on Slashdot front page?"
Re:pay to use my hardware.. I don't. (Score:2)
I bought an unlocked e71 and use it on AT&T's network with no issues. GPS, maps and everything.