Limited device support, though
Compatible devices: Nokia X6, Nokia N97 mini, E72, E55, E52, Nokia 6730 classic, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia 5230.
Nokia has started giving away Ovi Maps including turn-by-turn directions, removing one more source of income in the ongoing battle to out-freebie Google. Ovi Maps runs on Nokia's Symbian-based handsets, and synchronises with the online version for when you want to use a bigger screen. Until this morning, lost punters could …
To those saying that older phones are supported, it's true that you can click the "more info" link to be taken to a download page for that generation. HOWEVER, that download page makes no mention of free navigation. To see my point, go to that page and switch between a new and an old model. The new models specifically say "with free navigation", the older models do not.
Depends on whether you've got a recent enough Nokia phone it appears ... certainly on the N97mini page they say you can download maps directly to your phone without using a Windows computer.
http://europe.nokia.com/support/product-support/maps-support/compatibility-and-download#/nokia-n97-mini/
Why N97mini and not N97, dunno ... but wasn't there a new version of the OS which came standard on the N97mini and you had to upgrade on the N97? Maybe the Maps with spoken navigation requires features from that new version of the OS?
Anyway, I'm happy as I just got a new E72 and that's one of the phones supported straight away (rather than having to wait a few weeks like some others!)
We don't object to paying for the map that's bundled with the device when we first buy it, or for buying extra maps that cover areas we didn't pay for with the original purchase.
But charging full price for an annual update that doesn't update more than a tiny percentage of the roads really isn't on, as is refusing to implement new services on old maps even though the old maps cover the intended route perfectly well.
Its high time that the law required FREE annual updates, or at least limited their cost to a sensible 5% per annum of the original price.
Better still, the law should require compulsory adoption of open source maps and require the local authorities to keep them up to date.
Not sure about on the phones, but my TomTom Go 700 gets map updates for the equivalent of about £2.50/month, for the UK and Europe.
And when I had trouble installing the new maps on such an old device, they went out of their way to send me an updated base version of the software and maps so the subscription service would work.
TomTom have (in my limited experience) good customer service, and the OS upgrades (including new functionality) on my Go 700 have been free.
@AC said "Its high time that the law required FREE annual updates, or at least limited their cost to a sensible 5% per annum of the original price." because of course it doesn't cost anyone anything to get the new map updates ... bah. At 30-odd pounds a year the subscription costs about 8% of the original purchase price, and is worth every penny :-)
If you buy the maps seperately for some other device - an iPhone or Nokia S60, say - you'll be paying something in the £40-70 ballpark. £30 is an AWFUL big slice of what was already a borderline purchase decision (for me, answer was "no") given how cheaply some dedicated satnavs can be bought.
And if you've gone out in the sales and stretched a meagre budget to get a Tom Tom Start for £100, when previously you were relying on a 5+ year out of date, £20 Phillips Navigator and a not entirely reliable £5 compass and getting regularly lost (I'm STILL in the latter state), then an update that costs 30% of the device's initial purchase cost and doesn't do a great deal of anything no longer seems all that reasonable. Speed camera updates are less than that and both more useful and probably involve a bit more work and research.
(Whilst we're at it the traffic / etc subscription costs can start to take the piss with some providers, and when you start adding everything together - map updates, cameras, traffic - it can be quite a costly affair)
Paying .... what.... £30 / 0.08... £375 ?!?! for a satnav, in this day and age? I can barely dream of that kind of payout - I was idly wondering the other day on the comparitive benefit of a £300-ish bike-oriented one for my "money saving" 125cc, vs just getting a cheapie and putting it in a waterproof case. Not entirely sure which is a better idea... but phone maps are very hard to use with biker gloves on, even a car nav would be an improvement.
I do hope you got your moneys worth and it gave you a honking great raft of extra features that really do provide you with much additional value, otherwise you've been bloody well HAD, mate. There's scads of the things that can be bought for a third of the price (or in other words, the updates are 1/4 the purchase price).
I wouldn't be so harsh as to say 5%; I mean, the guys've gotta live, and as stated there's a great price variability. But maybe peg it at £10 or so per year. That should attract a great number of subscriptions and therefore still maybe make enough money to actually pay for the work to be done and even turn a profit, without being a complete giveaway. Depending what, where and when you buy, that'd be anything from 2% upto 12% of the device cost. No longer a pisstake and you can maybe afford to indulge in a camera or traffic subscription, or even - if you're budgeting longterm - go up a level of spec in the device itself. Maybe get advance lane warnings, for example.
You can always "Debrand" your phone (using a free app) so that you can download the latest version of the firmware from Nokia. In my experience this works perfectly - although it probably invalidates your warranty and 3 will probably get annoyed if you start using 2G networks in preference to their 3G network.
I'll be downloading this as soon as I get out into a decent signal area, then. I felt quite cheated at upgrading to an N79 pretty much because it had GPS and "included Nokia maps with turn by turn navigation". Seemed a good deal to get something that had vague Tom Tom-ish ability AND was a complete (if low end) Symbian-platform smartphone for about the same price as a cheap "normal" satnav. Of course the so-small-only-bacteria-can-see-it (when they squint) print was that you got a month of very very basic navigation for free (and even that hasn't actually worked for me since I signed up), and then continued service or any of the actually-useful levels (e.g. "Driving directions") was extra cost, starting from about a fiver a month. Or sixty quid a year. I could get an actual nearly-new Tom Tom for that on eBay.
At least you still got the maps thrown in, but they do hog the memory card and with a Web 'n' Walk plan they're only useful in the very rare situations where the GPS actually freakin' works, but there's not enough phone signal to stream the images into Google Maps. Neither of them offer decent navigation as-is; it's more a case of having a very small and portable map in your pocket, rather than an A-Z or lugging the aforementioned Navigator about. Still have to keep stopping and checking the location, seeing if the GPS actually agrees with you (if not, trust your eyes instead of the phone), and scrolling to and then along the purple line to work out which way to turn next.
Getting the voice nav to work gratis, even if it's only the cheapie "walking" one, may convince me to look at how much their cheaper service upgrades are, if only for a month or two to show some gratitude and keep the service afloat. Phone + bluetooth earbud + voice nav would be EXCEPTIONALLY useful when out on the moto, and still fairly handy in the car where peering at a tiny screen whilst in motion is not really recommended, and I'd prefer it to be taken up with the fullscreen, large font Speed, Distance/ETA & Compass displays for enhanced camera-dodging and "where the bloody hell am I going NOW?" information.
Part of the Nokia sales pitch here is aimed at the networks rather than the consumer. Ovi maps apparently uses significantly less network bandwidth than Google maps for the same navigation task, something like an order of magnitude less. For the networks offering call plans with free data that’s a big deal. Get your subscribers using Ovi instead of Google and you effectively save hundreds of thousands of Pounds/Euros/Dollars a month. This in turn equals more generous subsidies to Nokia Phones and some additional promotion of them by the networks. I suspect the calculation is they will make more money on this than they currently do selling the current value added services. I'm also guessing that in the future they can charge for things like restaurant listing etc so when you search for a local restaurant those paying appear more prominently.
Personally I prefer a dedicated Navigation device in the car, my phone’s screen is too small for the job, but if Nokia made a dedicated satnav with this offer i'd buy it when it comes time to replace my TomTom.