Recently Nokia made Turn by Turn Navigation completely free. Following the announcement FoneArena was invited to a Virtual Q&A Session with the OVI Maps Team . Arshia Varlet and Pino Bonetti whom we spoke to when in London as a part of the Good Things event were part of this Q&A
Interesting answers we got from the session
- N900 will be added to the list of devices.
- Ovi Maps uses 55% less data than Google Maps.
- Nokia will never charge for Navigation again
Here is what we spoke about !
Q&A Session 1(01/21/2010)6:43WOM World/Nokia: Welcome to the first Q&A session. It will be moderated by RobbieD from WOM World/Nokia, and will last 45 minutes.6:48[Standby] This session will begin at 10.30am GMT with a group of invited panelists. Feel free to watch and comment, though be aware that your comments may not be put into the live stream.9:30WOM World/Nokia: The session will kick off at 10.30am GMT…10:01FoneArena: hello10:03WOM World/Nokia: Hello indeed!10:04Awesome_Aleks: Hi, The news is quite exciting tonight10:07WOM World/Nokia: Hey Aleks, good to have you on. In 25 mins we’ll have reps from Nokia online.10:14MyNokiaWorld: Hello10:28WOM World/Nokia: We’ll give it another 5 minutes and then we can kick off (hopefully there are some burning questions out there!)10:30MyE63.blogspot.com: hey all10:30MyE63.blogspot.com: are we supposed to have a login / pass?10:30MyNokiaWorld: Well you’re in now!10:31WOM World/Nokia: Exactly 😉 You’re in the mix now! We’ll give it a couple more minutes then I’ll do a quick intro10:33Nokia India Office Blog Camp: Hi all there when do we go live10:34WOM World/Nokia: Well, now’s as good a time as any! I’m RobbieD from WOM World/Nokia and I’ll moderate today just to make sure we have space for all questions, and run to time. The session is set to last 45 minutes and you should be able to spot the Nokia guys because they have ‘(Nokia)’ after their name!That’s the formalities out of teh way so, shall we have the first couple of questions (remember there’ll be a slight delay while responses are typed up!).10:35MyE63.blogspot.com: Are there any changes to the current navigation that is available?10:36FoneArena: Any plans to bring maps to S40 ?10:36Awesome_Aleks: Does this announcement cover the Nokia Series 40 feature phones as well?10:36WOM World/Nokia: Let’s hold with those three until we get some answers in10:39Pino Bonetti (Nokia): Hi everyonethe current Ovi Maps release contains several changes and improvements from the previous commercial release.I’m going now to mention a few:10:39Nokia India Office Blog Camp: Is it going to be supported on N900?10:40Annika Pollari (Nokia): At the moment it’s only Symbian devices that can run new Ovi Maps. For S40 we have recently launched Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition, most affordable GPS phone with navigation.10:40Arshia Varlet (Nokia): The N900 will be added to list of compatible devices soon10:41MyNokiaWorld: Will it have the landmark based navigation like google maps has for india?10:41Pino Bonetti (Nokia): You have now a home screen where you can access with one click to all your servicesWalk navigation now features voice guidanceText to speech is now available in both Drive and Walk navigationWith Share location you can share now where you are and what you are up to with your Facebook friends10:41FoneArena: Will we get Street View in india or other countries ?10:43Awesome_Aleks: Will current phones be shipped with the new version of Ovi Maps in the future?10:43Pino Bonetti (Nokia): To help users find their way more easily we provide instead 3D landmarks10:44FoneArena: Hi Pino .. is Indoor positioning coming up ?10:44Arshia Varlet (Nokia): The next product releases of some of our Symbian S60 phones with GPS will come with the new version of Ovi Maps10:44WOM World/Nokia: Great questions guys let’s just make sure everyone has time to get through them – we’ve got 30 mins yet – (and don’t worry about bringing it up later if you slip through the net!)10:47Awesome_Aleks: Is it correct to assume devices announced in the future (particularly the near-future) will come pre-installed withg the new Ovi Maps10:47Pino Bonetti (Nokia): Of course we support cell-id positioning for places where you can’t get any GPS fix.We are also looking into new ways to improve positioning even further by looking into new technologies10:47Arshia Varlet (Nokia): yes, all new GPS enabled S60 devices will come with the new Ovi maps in the future10:49Alex iTWire.com: The press release states navigation, guides etc are free. Does this mean future add-ons will also be free, will there be payable content in the future? Google Maps voice nav free of charge in the US on Droid and Nexus has changed the game – kudos for de10:49Nokia India Office Blog Camp: whats the data usage if i use say an hour a day for a month?10:49MyNokiaWorld: how will you be able to integrate streetview into countries like india?10:50Alex iTWire.com: To continue, kudos for delivering a response that’s global in nature and priced so attractively. 😉10:52WOM World/Nokia: All flowing nicely, so I won’t step in… 25 minutes left10:52Arshia Varlet (Nokia): Here are some real life examples to give an indication of the amount of data that could be used. These numbers naturally vary depending on the density of the road network, amount of 3D landmarks etc.• Get A-GPS fix and view your location in your home country with preloaded maps: 4 kB• Search and view Empire State Building with preloaded maps: 50 kB• Search and browse map in one city in 3D map mode: 2-6 MB• Create and show a route from Place A to Place B (56 km): 30kb• Drive through the created route: 0 kB• Drive 100 km with no preloaded maps: 5.1MBAs a comparison, Ovi Maps uses 55% less data than Google Maps.10:52MyE63.blogspot.com: what can we expect in the future with Nokia OVI Maps after this?10:53Alex iTWire.com: Is the N900 coming to Australia? I read a report that it isn’t, and haven’t checked locally.10:54Pino Bonetti (Nokia): Thank you Alex for your question.We would like to highlight how Ovi Maps is REALLY FREE, while Google Maps still contains hidden costs.With Ovi Maps you can download the most up to date maps for free on your mobile device. This means no data cost for navigation!And when you don’t have GSM coverage you are still able to navigate.10:54Alex iTWire.com: How quickly will Nokia start marketing this to consumers, will there be a global campaign to follow what will obviously be a lot of press coverage?10:55Arshia Varlet (Nokia): We are constantly looking at improving our social location offering, navigation is the step up the ladder…with third party partnerships of enhanced location based apps…so stay tuned!10:55FoneArena: Hello Arshia , Met you in London during the Good things ! Are you exposing this map data to developers through an API ?10:55Arshia Varlet (Nokia): Absolutley! this is a game changing offer giving consumers immense value. There is a global campaign on the way10:57Alex iTWire.com: Will Nokia offer users the ability to speak their desired location, like Google Maps, in a future edition, both on S60 and Maemo?10:57Arshia Varlet (Nokia): Hi there! How are you? yes! for sure.developers will have access to the map data for sure10:57MyE63.blogspot.com: Massive change in the game for sure!10:57Bilal Khaddaj (Nokia): yes we’re providing the Ovi SDK to access the map player API10:57Awesome_Aleks: If anyone can emphasise on Arshia’s answer. If the maps were preloaded on the Nokia device would it be correct to assume total data usage as low as a few KB for the entire trip?11:00Pino Bonetti (Nokia): We tweeted earlier today a picture that shows an example: http://twitter.com/ovibynokia/status/8021732510 🙂So, even if you are going online Ovi Maps is still 10x more cost efficient than Google Maps11:00Annika Pollari (Nokia): @Alex: We are currently not able to say when N900 will be available in Australia.11:01FoneArena: I’m good . Looks like you guys must have had a hectic time working on this release. Kudos to the team . i could download the app to the n97 mini and get started really quick . What about support for older devices which support Nokia Maps ?11:02MyE63.blogspot.com: Yeah was going to say… what can a Nokia E63 user do except upgrade to a better phone? or does this release support E63?11:02Alex iTWire.com: To WOM, could you please email me a copy of the text below? I’m attending this meeting on an iPhone and not my PC, which very unusually I’ve not brought with me. can send email in private message but can’t unless you send me a private message. Thanks11:02MyNokiaWorld: Will the release support phones that can use external GPS devices?11:03Alex iTWire.com: Once the q&a is over of course. Would still love to know when N900 due for Australia 🙂11:03Annika Pollari (Nokia): The new version of Ovi Maps is currently available for 10 smartphones and more to come, also to some older device models. All compatible devices now and in teh future can upgrade to Ovi Maps, even if thay had used older Nokia Maps versions before.11:03WOM World/Nokia: Let’s hang fire a moment, and get the answers to these in… (should also say, that a transcript of everything will be made available later)11:05Alex iTWire.com: Oops I see your response on N900 now. Perhaps this experience would be better on it than the iPhone, if only it was locally available! 😉 🙂 on a different note, is free navigation coming to the nokia booklet 3g, and also is Nokia planning a larger tabl11:06Alex iTWire.com: A larger tablet /slate sized device – with free nav presumably – running Maemo 5?11:06Arshia Varlet (Nokia): Smart phones with no inbuilt GPS are not compatible at this time11:07MyNokiaWorld: What about in the future? Say i paired an e63 with a garmin device. would i be able to use the new ovi maps?11:07Annika Pollari (Nokia): At the moment, this new offer covers only Symbian devices. We are not able state at this point anything more.11:08Pino Bonetti (Nokia): Unfortunately the current Ovi Maps with free navigation doesn’t support E63 yet, however, we are concentrating our efforts to support more and more devices soon.Even if you connect to an external GPS receiver 🙂 Ovi Maps must work on the phone first.11:08MyNokiaWorld: hehe..11:09FoneArena: Any ETA on this free navigation for N900 ?11:09WOM World/Nokia: Has anyone got any final questions as we move towards the end of the session? (been very intriguing so far – I’m learning a lot too!)11:10MyE63.blogspot.com: just gotta say.. this was what we were hoping for a long time!!! Very strategic move and it will be interesting to see how this impacts other market leaders. Is there a message you have (apart from “FREE!”) that you would like to get out to the world?11:11Alex iTWire.com: Any word on future voice controlled nav a la Gmaps?11:12Arshia Varlet (Nokia): was waiting for that! here comes our war cry! FREE! WORLD WIDE! OUT of the BOX! and yours to keep11:12Arshia Varlet (Nokia): FOREVER!11:13FoneArena: And the Weather integration is cool11:13MyNokiaWorld: where’s mel gibson when you need him11:13Awesome_Aleks: So Nokia will never charge for Navigation again? 😉11:13Annika Pollari (Nokia): We are looking into including other platforms as well in this offer in addition to Symbian11:13Arshia Varlet (Nokia): yup, thats the plan! …11:14Alex iTWire.com: Also – any word on more ‘comes with music’ offerings for a doubly whammy of music and maps? Along with adding movies, tv shows, books, mags and other content to comes with music?11:14Arshia Varlet (Nokia): lets talk maps shall we 🙂11:15FoneArena: Ok Arshia , Street view ? 😉 ?11:15WOM World/Nokia: Let’s just mop up the final questions and we’ll have to wrap things up I’m afraid…11:16Alex iTWire.com: Ah well at least we can now say Nokia ‘Comes with Maps’ and free at that. Comes with ‘other digital media’ will clearly have to wait 🙂 😉11:16Arshia Varlet (Nokia): like it!11:16Pino Bonetti (Nokia): Hi FoneArena, we are considering street view as well, but right now we offer alternative ways to help you find your way, for instance 3D Landmarks and Text To Speech11:17FoneArena: Hi Pino , Thanks for the answer11:17MyE63.blogspot.com: ok sorry I really have to go! I’ve just written up my blog post and I hope Nokia kills it with this new release!! Signing out from Perth, Australia11:17Alex iTWire.com: There must be more surprises to come at MWC to release this now – before iPad hype hits too. Good luck with MWC and I hope you can surprise us all as much again 🙂11:18WOM World/Nokia: Ok, that looks like it for today – thanks to everyone for your great questions, and thanks to Nokia for taking the time to answer them!11:18Pino Bonetti (Nokia): Thank you all for participating!11:18FoneArena: Thanks WOM and Nokia 🙂11:18Arshia Varlet (Nokia): thanks guys!11:18MyNokiaWorld: Thanks everyone11:19Awesome_Aleks: Thanks for answering our questions11:19FoneArena: Take care all and download ovi maps11:19Alex iTWire.com: Thanks and bye from Sydney, Australia. P.S. Release the N900 down under, or it’s multitouch replacement! 🙂11:20MyNokiaWorld: @Fonearena, on the n900 now.. No ovi maps 🙁11:21FoneArena: @mynokiaworld .. you bought it ?11:22WOM World/Nokia: Thanks everyone, been a great session. I’ll be shutting down the room in 10 mins, but the content should remain. Cheers!
Thanks to the folks from WOM for the Q&A