Nokia gives green light for free navigation service

Nokia today announced free passes to its turn-by-turn walk-and-drive navigation on Ovi Maps, ending what was previously a subscription-based service.
Users can immediately download the new Ovi Maps on 10 Series60 devices (see list here). Moving forward, the application will be preinstalled on GPS-enabled smartphones starting March, along with preloaded maps, Lonely Planet, restaurant (HungryGoWhere) and event guides, as well as weather updates. Live traffic information will be available in over 10 countries including Singapore. Users can also share their location via the Lifecasting application which goes out of beta today.
According to Nokia, the free navigation service is now available only on S60 devices, but will eventually be extended to S40 handsets and devices running on Maemo, although the phone-maker didn't commit to a specific time frame.
When asked about its plans for its Navigator series, which comes bundled with the free real-time navigation service, Nokia skirted the question by saying that this was more about the "big picture" and to "change the market".
Users who have bought turn-by-turn navigation licenses before the announcement today, however, will not be getting any refunds.
"We are not able to offer any refunds, but all existing licenses remain valid. The [users] can choose to keep their existing version (Ovi Maps 3.0) or upgrade to the free one," Nokia told CNET Asia in an email.
The world's largest phone-maker has sold about 83 million GPS-enabled devices since the launch of the N95 in 2007. This accounted for 51 percent of the total number of such handsets in 2009, according to research firm Canalys. It expects that the number of users using GPS navigation on their mobiles would potentially leap from 27 million (in 2009) to 50 million after today's announcement.
In 2008, Nokia acquired digital map provider Navteq for US$8.1 billion as the former turned its focus to navigation and location-based services on mobile phones. Last September, the Finnish company released mapping and navigation APIs with the Ovi SDK, allowing developers to write applications for the platform.
With today's announcement, Nokia goes head-on with Google which introduced its free navigation service for Android 2.0 devices last October. This was first available on the Motorola Droid from Verizon in the US. Google had no updates when we asked if the service would expand to other countries.
Unlike Google Maps for mobile, which pulls map data in real time, users can download Ovi Maps onto the PC and sideload it on the handset, saving on local data charges and roaming. Nokia also said its maps can be set to offline mode when navigating. This means a network connection isn't needed to utilize the maps. Map data downloaded over-the-air and the initial data packet (in KBs) for a faster location fix are still chargeable, though.
Nokia said last month that one of its operational priorities is to provide third-party developers with tools to create applications and content for the Ovi ecosystem, among other goals such as re-engineering the Symbian user interface and introducing its first Maemo 6 device in the latter half of 2010.