Nokia makes Ovi Maps free, goes head-on with Google Navigation

When Google launched its turn-by-turn maps navigation for Android, it made the Droid a whole lot powerful with a superb GPS software. Having the Google search for GPS was amazing. And today Nokia has went free with navigation services via its own Ovi Maps. Coming to 10 S60 handsets to begin with the Ovi Maps navigation would also be brought to Maemo and S40 series models along with being preloaded on Nokia devices from March 2010.

This is certainly a bold move by Nokia and increases its competitiveness in the smartphone race. While the free Google navigation is available only in the US for now, the Nokia Ovi will give you worldwide access (detailed maps for more than 180 countries). Not just that, the Nokia Maps can be downloaded and loaded on to your handset for a Internet free navigation. This is unlike Google Navigation that requires an active data connection on your smartphone to do all the magic.

Further Nokia Ovi Maps gives you turn-by-turn voice guidance in 74 countries (46 languages) and also traffic info in 10 countries. Nokia Ovi Maps navigation can be downloaded here for the Nokia N97 mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia E52, Nokia E55, Nokia E72, Nokia 5230, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6730 classic and Nokia X6. With 83 million GPS devices being shipped by Nokia in 2009 alone, this service can have a huge userbase if rolled out properly.

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