Nokia said Wednesday that the new Ovi Maps has been downloaded more than 1.4 million times since its launch on January 21. Nokia recently released a reworked version of the Ovi Maps navigation software, and according to Nokia, it appears to have caught on thanks to the mobile market's appetite for GPS navigation.
Among new additions to Ovi Maps is turn-by-turn GPS navigation in the software, a feature that already exists for mobile devices made by Nokia rivals.
"We're averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day," said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's executive vice president, in a statement. "When we announced free-walk-and-drive navigation we knew it would be a game-changer. The number of people now using their Nokia for navigation, and as a result looking for more location-aware software, is growing faster than we ever predicted."
According to Nokia, users from China, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain downloaded the Ovi Maps application most. The five Nokia phones most likely to have received a download are Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, Nokia N97, Nokia 5230 and Nokia E72.
Nokia also said Wednesday that by March, all new Nokia smartphones that are GPS-enabled will come with not only the new Ovi Maps but also pre-loaded local map data, by country, and access to travel guides by Michelin and Lonely Planet.
Nokia has been challenged to break into the North American smartphone market, where the Finnish cell phone maker continues to lag despite its dominance in the rest of the world. Among overall handsets worldwide, Nokia remains the market share leader -- various estimates put its share between 36 and 40 percent -- and its new phones consistently rank among the year's 10 Coolest Smartphones.
Will the updated Ovi Maps be seen as a step forward or a move to catch-up to other, more GPS navigation-savvy phone rivals?
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