Nokia's Ovi Maps finally achieves popularity

Nokia's decision to release Ovi Maps for free has resulted in more than a million downloads in its first week. This clearly illustrates that, unfortunately, such applications no longer have a finite value as a standalone product. We can probably blame Google for this They do, however, clearly add value to the package as a whole and Nokia customers are undoubtedly benefitting from Nokia's decision.

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"Nokia is on a roll after its stagnant 2009, with strong quarterly results and rising smartphone share. Now it says its recent decision to make its Ovi Maps navigation service entirely free, in an aggressive shot at Google, has already been fully justified, with downloads hitting over 1.4m in just a couple of weeks.

"We're averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day," crowed Anssi Vanjoki, executive VP in charge of the critical web services strategy, adding that downloads crossed the one million mark within a week of the launch date of January 21.

This might not generate the direct financial return Nokia shareholders may have wanted when the firm paid a huge $8.1bn for the Navteq mapping firm, but it endorses the strategy of leveraging Nokia's huge cellphone base to build massive support for its web services, which should then drive revenues such as advertising, as well as increased phone uptake."

Continues: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02...map_downloads/