Nokia Maps is a source of endless frustration: buy a 700€ N96, and it will not let you navigate out of the box. Users loath it, carrier reps are unable to explain it to customers, and store clerks tell your truly that it barely sells – but Nokia nevertheless remains committed to the product.
Their latest attempt is pictured below:
Even though Ovi Maps 3.0 adds a few features which are extremely useful for developers, the latter are nevertheless advised to stay far away from the product: many extremely popular handsets which sell loads of software are unsupported. For example, users of the E51, N93 and N73 handsets are left in the rain…these devices remain extremely popular and sell well. As for Samsung and LG boxen: don’t ask…
Let’s now assume that I switch LocaNote to this product rather than Google Maps. This will alienate all customers who use an Omnia HD – as most of these are bought unlocked by freaks, the financial impact there is more than one may think it is at first glance. No matter how much better Ovi Maps is: I am in the business to make money – and if I have to invest 10 extra hours to get loads of extra customers, you can guess what I will do.
Nokia is in the unique position of being able to earn money whenever their product gets used…and then throws this opportunity out the window. If Nokia wants to get developers off Google Maps, they need to offer their API for all popular devices – until this happens, Google Maps reigns supreme…
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I’ve been saying this for a while now. Nokia does loads to expand upon S60 so it’s a depressing fragmentation of the platform that S60 phones from other companies can’t use things from say the beta labs. Useful applications like Nokia Maps and Messaging can’t be used by me without a hack when my i8910 HD arrives from Samsung Ambassadors, meaning I’ll get less use from a phone that would normally cost £600 fully unlocked. Unifying S60 across manufacturers should have happened by now, and it’s damaging when things like Android are stealing the show.
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Hi,
my words!
All the best
Tam Hanna