To access Nokia Maps on a compatible mobile web browser, just type maps.Nokia.com in your mobile browser and you are in the Nokia Maps page.

Some of the features include:
- You can see where you are on the map, thanks to HTML5 support for positioning

- You can find addresses, businesses and other places of interest, anywhere in the world

- You can get to know the places: all the essential information about a place are presented on one page (pictures, user reviews, popular travel guides description, contact information)

- You can plan the fastest route to your destination by car or on foot

- You can see where the public transport lines go, and where the stops are

- You can share your favourite places with your friends via SMS, email, Facebook or Twitter

The service is still in beta stage but quite usable. If you have an HTML5-compliant mobile browser, feel free to give Nokia Maps a try.

Source: Nokia Conversations.

Maps will come preinstalled on the Nokia C2-03 and its variants, out-of-the-box, including maps data for the user’s region. The user doesn’t need to download any further data to get started.

Maps for Series 40 doesn’t rely on a GPS device in the phone, either, but rather triangulates the user’s position from cell tower locations. This, together with smart routing software, means that Nokia Maps can still provide turn-by-turn directions for drivers.

Viewing maps and planning routes can be done entirely offline. Online features such as finding your location – or advanced search – can be done with minimum data usage – less than 10KB. If users want to share their location, they can do so for the cost of an affordable SMS message.

Additional maps can be loaded onto a memory card, allowing for the added capability when users go abroad. Nokia Maps are currently available for over 100 countries. In Singapore, for example, there is 100% street coverage and quarter of a million points of interest included.

Until today, Navigation has been kept in the hands of the few. Today that changes. We realised that billions of people around the world already have mobile phones that are perfectly suited to delivering Navigation. So we’re going to let them do that. From this day on, Navigation on your Nokia, with Ovi Maps, will be free for everyone, everywhere, to get people to the places they love. Now, and forever.

Nokia further provides the following details:

• Free Drive navigation
• Free Walk navigation
• Free maps and map updates
• Free Events guides
• Free Lonely Planet guides
• Free Michelin guides

The first batch of devices for which the new free application is available for are:
Compatible devices:

1. X6
2. N97 mini
3. E72
4. E55
5. E52
6. 6730 classic
7. 6710 Navigator
8. 5800 Xpressmusic
9. 5800 Navigation Edition
10. 5230

The free application will be available for more devices over time. Visit the Nokia Maps page to download your free upgrade.

This move by Nokia is quite strategic, as it enhances the value of their devices. What do you think? Does this move increase your attraction to Nokia smartphones and handsets?

Head over to the Nokia Maps Free Navigation Licence page.

So this test run was more-or-less to see how accurate either applications are in terms of route planning.

Nokia Maps

Nokia Maps was up first. Getting into my car, I launched the application, located my office premises on it and instructed it to guide me there. Nokia maps did a fine job, presenting me with a route to follow.

The voice instructions were on spot with directions such as: “Turn right and then the next right turn“, “Turn right after 355 metres“, “Take the next turn left and you have arrived at your destination“, and as I pulled up in the car park, the soothing female British voice clipped, “You have arrived at your destination“. Yes; that felt good.

In the course of the trip, I decided to play pranks on the application and deliberately disobeyed some turn instructions. Nokia Maps wasn’t fazed. My guide’s voice would simply pip, “Recalculating route”, then re-draw the visual guide and give me another set of instructions.

I know those streets, and can testify that Nokia Maps was very accurate leading me through.

Garmap for Mobile

On completing my task at the office, I launched Garmap for Mobile for the return trip home. It drew up a return route – the exact route Nokia Maps had originally drawn on my way from home earlier.

This time, I headed in the opposite direction. A few seconds later, Garmap told me, “Re-calculating route“, re-drew the on-screen route, and gave me the next turn instruction. The instruction was spot on (I know every street in that area and where they terminate). I disobeyed and kept going.

Another re-calculation and corresponding voice direction. Correct once again. I ignored it and kept going. Every now and then, I would obey one direction, but disobey the next two or three. Each time, Garmap re-calculated correctly and gave accurate voice directions.

I noticed that Garmap got one or two street names wrong (the name of the street you are on is displayed on-screen), but it got all routes and turn instructions correct all the way home.

As I drove up in front of the house, Garmap’s voice direction finally said, “Turn left and you are at your destination“. Well, yes, the entrance to my residence stood to my left!

Conclusions

In this test, I rate both applications equally. Yes; it was a short test, but any navigation system that can acccurately guide anyone through the streets of Ojodu (not VI, Ikoyi, Surulere or Ikeja), where my office is located, deserves a fair score.

Though the weather was cloudy, GPS reception by both applications was good.

If you have any ideas you’d like for me to try out in my series of tests on these two applications, let me know.

Drive navigation, the term that Nokia uses for this, is a premium service requiring a subscription. I decided that in order to give the application a fair review I needed to try Drive Navigation out.

Fortunately, Nokia Maps has a menu embedded that lets users subscribe right on the handset you are using. Well, I dived in there, and was presented with the various subscription plans and fees, as well as a form to enter my credit card details.

In a few moments, I had purchased a 30-day licence. I recieved an SMS receipt:

I had also opted for an email version of the recipt (which contained more details).

The whole order process was smooth and easy. Impressive. Mobile commerce, if done right as in this case, will encourage more mobile users to make purchases right on their devices.

The 30-day subscription costs just N999.00, which is significantly less than most people spend on airtime monthly (Okay, okay; I’m speaking for myself), and it was completed under 5 minutes.

The payment services was handled by Tanla Oy, a company with indian origins that offers end-to-end mobile commerce, mobile entertainment, mobile internet and mobile advertising solutions.

After I entered my licence code in the appropriate menu on the phone, I was ready to go:

I’ll be putting Nokia Maps through its paces over the next few weeks. In addition, I’ll be doing same with Garmap for Mobile, which I also wrote about just yesterday.

Looks like I’ll be having fun for some time. Hopefully, I won’t get myself lost following either application Which is very, very unlikely, judging by what I have seen so far.

In the meantime, kudos to Nokia for making it easy to get a subscription to the Nokia Maps Drive navigation service.

Yesterday, I gave Nokia Maps a go on the E75 QWERTY smartphone. The version that came built-in on the phone is pretty useless, offering very little besides major highways. What I did was initiate an upgrade to Nokia Maps 3.0 via PC.

The Nokia Maps Updater is available for download to PC at http://europe.nokia.com/explore-services/maps/download. I installed the application, connected the E75 to PC via USB cable and initiated the update.

In a few minutes, I had Nokia Maps 3.0 on the smartphone. Apparently, the service is no longer restricted to just the E71 and the Navigator series.

Things Get Better…
Nokia Maps 3.0 has more detailed maps and features for Nigeria. The application presents a signifacant level of street names and directions. Other features include:

• 3D maps
• My location
• Traffic info
• Map/Satellite/Terrain modes
• Favourites
• History
• Map Screenshot (allows you to take screenshots of the map on the screen)
• Search places and addresses i.e. points of interests
• Voice Guidance

Here are screenshots of various locations in Lagos:

3D view of Jibowu Intersection at Yaba

Search results for airport/helipad facilities in Lagos

3D view of OAS helicopter Services at Maryland, Ikeja

Adekunle Intersection of the 3rd mainland Bridge

I’ll be sure to try out the Drive & Walk feature with voice guidance over the next one month and do a mini-review thereafter.

This is long overdue, in my opinion, given the fact that Nokia has a huge market here in Nigeria. I have always felt that Nokia downplayed the significance of the Nigerian market with their lack of support for the country in Nokia Maps.

However, the billboard claimed that Nokia Maps is “The First Mobile Navigation in Nigeria”. This is certainly untrue. I can rattle off my head at least two mobile navigation applications that made it to Nigeria before Noki Maps: Garmap for Mobile (which was launched a few weeks back), and Ceaser MobyMap.

This reminds me of Zain’s outrageous claim that with the launch of 3.5G on Zain Ghana, they “inaugurated the first 3.5G network on the continent outside South Africa“. Come on, guys!

The people at Nokia should have done a little research before making such a bold claim as this. Or are they just attempting to bully their way through with it?

Fact: Nokia Maps is NOT the first mobile navigaation in Nigeria. It is NOT even the second.

That false claim aside, we will be looking forward to trying out Nokia Maps in real life usage to see how it performs. Until then, if you have more information about Nokia Maps, you are welcome to share in the comments segment.