In an effort to become a really compelling all round location based application, Ovi Maps has added one more feature to its already impressive offering – Booking a hotel. Ovi Maps has tied up with HRS, Europe’s leading online hotel reservation system, to open HRS’s 250,000+ strong database of hotels to Maps users. This means that with Ovi Maps now you can:
search hotels close to your current location,
check real-time price and availability information,
make the booking with just a couple of clicks (or taps) on your Nokia phone and finally,
be guided to your hotel with the free turn-by-turn navigation service, all with Maps!
In addition to this, the usual way of searching also works, you can simply enter the destination, the arrival and departure dates and the room category and the displayed hotels can be sorted according to individual preferences, such as the distance from the current location, the price or star rating. Additionally you will also have access to photos, hotel descriptions and average customer ratings to help make an informed choice.
Initially this service is being rolled out to users in Germany and Finland only, but we can expect a extended rollout soon. The service will shop up as a shortcut on the Ovi Maps app homepage on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97 Mini and Nokia 6710 Navigator.
With Ovi Maps Racing, the first location-based mobile game by Nokia, players can navigate and access their location, create a track and race around the block.
Utilizing actual map data by NAVTEQ and the GPS technology of the mobile device, Ovi Maps Racing allows players to create a racing track out of their own physical location, whether at home or in the office *). Racing is experienced with easy and enjoyable touch controls and there are three racing cars to choose from.
So now you know that the price barrier to the premium content for to Ovi Maps has been removed forever and you can get access to a host of free add-ons including:
Free Drive navigation
Free Walk navigation
Free maps and map updates
Free Events guides
Free Lonely Planet guides
Free Michelin guides
with your GPS enabled Nokia device. But what does this mean for you now and for Nokia in the long run? Here a few thoughts that come to my mind.
This is the first time that Nokia has taken on its competition head-on by stating it was doing so. Never did we see direct comparisons made between what Nokia did and what other companies were doing, but today Nokia directly compared its offering to what Google is doing. This was big for me, symbolized a new aggressive management strategy.
The key area Nokia is hitting at is the fact that Ovi Maps are downloadable and do not require a constant GPRS connection, unlike Google Maps which always needs a data connection and burns through data at a rapid pace. This is not good if you are not on an unlimited plan.
Next, unlike Google Maps (outside of the US), Ovi Maps gives users free voice guided, turn-by-turn navigation and works in 74 countries of the world.
Manufacturers of dedicated GPS systems will take a hit, stock prices of Garmin and Tom Tom have already gone down by 5 and 10% respectively. Most touch devices, feature huge screens which work just as well. This could well be the end of an era.
You should consider investing in a car mount for your Nokia GPS device and try Ovi Maps, if you already haven’t. You may be surprised by how well they work. He’s how I feel about the service.
Ovi Maps now covers 84 cities in India, with the total size of the India map data standing at a cool 104 MB. This includes an impressive 1 million points of interest.
This rollout has started with 10 devices at first, but Nokia will slowly add more device to the free navigation list. The N97 will get free navigation on Jan 20th.
Nokia has a tieup with Burrp in India to give localised event information to Ovi Maps users. So you can now search for your next evening hangout/event right from with the application.
With Facebook sharing, you can not share your location on Facebook with a single click. Nokia has plans to take this to a higher level soon.
This announcement makes devices like the 5800 even more desirable.
For Nokia, this a pretty strong move aimed at cementing its position as a market leader when it comes to navigation and giving its products a distinctive edge over the competition.
What did you think of today’s announcement? Have a question, please let us know and we will be sure to try and get you answers.
Awesome News today, as we find out Nokia’s Ovi Maps now has FREE Navigation for Symbian Devices !
Espoo, Finland – 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 46languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for more than 180 countries.
With just a few hours left before 2009 comes to an end, I want to talk about one Nokia service that really stood out for me – Ovi Maps. Why?
The GPS reception on most Nokia devices is pretty solid with AGPS.
Every device comes bundled with about 3 months of free navigation.
The navigation experience itself is good.
The Nokia Map data for India has recently been updated and covers a lot more cities.
A little while I was in New Delhi for a month’s time and as you can imagine, being new to the city I had no clue of the routes there and was completely dependent on my Nokia devices to take me to work, recreation and then back home. Based on an earlier experience (Nokia N95) when map data was shoddy, GPS connectivity not as robust, I was not expecting much.
Nevertheless I loaded Ovi Maps 3 onto both my N97 and E75 and set out. Surprisingly the search functionality was not that bad and I was able to reach work and back home without an issue. The application probably took a longer route, but I was grateful that it at least got me home. But when it came to looking for a restaurant or similar places, I found that using Google Maps to search for and save a location and then using Ovi Maps 3.0 to navigate to that places worked beautifully.
As a little gift from Nokia, they’re letting you try one week of free worldwide navigation on Maps. Seven days isnt much, but it should show you how navigation works on the Nokia Maps application. And its free,so why not give it a go?
So 
