Nokia Drive for all Windows Phone 8 smartphones

Published by Pino Bonetti on June 20, 2012

Location-based services, as Nokia announced last week, are becoming more and more core to our strategy. We’re focusing on location-based services, not just at Nokia, but bring our extending our services across many industries.

Today, we are making Nokia Drive available to other Windows Phone 8 partners to offer a turn-by-turn navigation experience for people in over 110 countries. Nokia Drive is one of the key experiences on Nokia Lumia smartphones, thanks to its ease of use and the experience that has gone into developing our location-based services. With Nokia Drive on Windows Phone 8, we will make drive navigation effortless.

Nokia Drive is one of the major apps that on Nokia’s location platform. Today, we are also making this platform and its unrivalled quality of data and richness of features available on Windows Phone 8 for all partners. This means that Nokia’s Location platform will be central to the Windows Phone 8 experience, with the intention of developing smartphones that bring advanced location experiences. Windows Phone 8 partners and developers will be able to use our location assets to build location-based apps and experiences of superior quality.

Nokia has more quality location data than any smartphone manufacturer in the market. Our platform is the most advanced mobile location platform in the world because it offers true offline functionality (for the past six years), fast client-side map rendering (50 fps) and only requires 10 per cent of the bandwidth when compared to traditional server-side map platforms.

The Nokia location platform is the biggest in the world:

  • We have maps data for more than 190 countries in more than 50 languages and navigation in more than 110 countries
  • We collect information from Nokia Drive users and local authorities to provide traffic alerts in 26 countries, and also allow dynamic rerouting
  • We have venue maps in over 4,600 shopping malls, train stations, airport, sports venues, etc. in 35 countries
  • We support multi-modal routing: by car, on foot (including footpaths, shortcuts, etc. in over 400 cities) and by public transportation (over 100 cities)

Also, Nokia’s location data is not confined to smartphones and computers. Our data already powers four out of five cars with in-car navigation and our customer list includes top brands in the tech and auto industries: Bing, Yahoo!, BMW and Ford.

All of these elements are coming together to form the ultimate Where experience, connecting individuals with the world around them. At Nokia, we are working on constantly improving that experience, and striving to deliver novel and meaningful customer interactions with our location platform, content and apps.

*Image credits: Samsung and HTC respectively. This is a mockup of what Nokia Drive might look like on different Windows Phone 8 devices.

Comments

  • pdexter

    So what is Nokia getting?
    Maps where the single largest asset you have. What’s next, PureView licensed for others?

    if you wanna sell something you need to have at least something unique to offer or people will just go for the device with better hardware… like Samsung. 

  • pdexter

    So what is Nokia getting?
    Maps where the single largest asset you have. What’s next, PureView licensed for others?

    if you wanna sell something you need to have at least something unique to offer or people will just go for the device with better hardware… like Samsung. 

    • Imago_Dei

       More like, PureView GIVEN to others. Nokia gets cents for the euros they pay to Microsoft (after the initial period is over).

      This is stupid beyond reason. Nokia essentially gave away Navteq property, a purchase of over 5 billion euros… for the right to sell Windows Phone, which no one seems to want.

      • guestb

        Any mainstream software or service that does not target a huge audience will get steamrolled by those that do. Nokia likely recognizes that the effort it will take for Noka Maps/Drive to stay ahead of the competition, it will need a larger audience than just Nokia Lumia customers. Some people feel that if RIM had done 3 years ago with its messenger services what Nokia is doing today with its Maps/Drive services, RIM would be in a much better position today. But apparently RIM could not see beyond its identity as a smart phone hardware maker, and that is a difficult world to survive in. So I believe there is some merit in Nokia’s decision, the perhaps also some short term loss of revenue in the Lumia line.

        • solomonshv

          “could not see beyond its identity as a smart phone
          hardware maker, and that is a difficult world to survive in”

          unless your logo is a bitten apple. people will come in droves and buy even those products your company swore it wouldn’t make. like larger iphones and smaller ipads.

  • http://www.facebook.com/chintannapster Chintan Dave

    I cant see such unique apps going to other competitors. 

    • Imago_Dei

      Just look and see.

      And seeing, that’s believing.

    • Imago_Dei

      Just look and see.

      And seeing, that’s believing.

    • Breakingillusions

      Nokia Drive is enough for competitors they should not give any other Nokia Apps

  • Tomi Luoma

    Nokia has to paid by Microsoft for using the Navteq maps and Nokia Drive this widely (or Nokia has to get discounted licenses). It would not make any sense businesswise whatsoever to give the maps and navigation for free to Nokia’s competitors for use. Chris Weber from Nokia has said that maps and navigation are one of four key aspects that differentiate Nokia from its competitors inside the Windows Phone ecosystem. If Nokia does not receive money from this, then I do not know what the managers are thinking at Nokia. Unique apps and design will not differentiate enough: then it would be up to the camera and imaging.

  • setiabud

    Is this available in the Marketplace yet for non-Nokia phones?

    • mobilesguruji

      I already have Nokia Maps & Nokia Drive on my Samsung Focus.

      • setiabud

        How? Running unlocked?

        • epdm2be

          It’s been hacked for over 4 months. Software and clouds will inevitably be hacked, cracked or broken into. Nokia should have seen this coming. Especially since all WP7/7.5 devices are essentially the same (crap).

          They are doomed. They urgently need to get of those ex-Microsoft employees. Fire them instead of your engineers.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Today’s announcement is only relevant for Windows Phone 8. We have not made any similar announcement about Windows Phone 7.5.

      • setiabud

        The post is a bit hinting that Nokia Drive will be able to be used in Samsung Focus & HTC HD7 (looking at the picture)? Either that picture is inaccurate or the post is inaccurate?

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Very legitimate comment @setiabud:disqus. The picture is just a mockup, because there are of course no devices with Windows Phone 8 yet. I have amended it accordingly, sorry for the confusion.

      • epdm2be

        Funny thing is that current Nokia’s WP7-devices will NOT get the WP8 upgrade at all. So NOBODY in their right mind will buy a Nokia WP7.5-device from now one. 

        Bye bye profits from WP7-devices as these are prematurely killed off by Microsoft themselves. The only hope for Nokia is that ancient, S40 platform that was supposed be replaced with S^3 in the first place. 

        They are so stupid. Nokia made the worst decisions in the last 2 years that ANY corporation could EVER make. Even I can run a more successfull company then they.

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Hi @epdm2be:disqus, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. We still believe, however, that we have chosen with Windows Phone the right path.
          Regarding Windows Phone 7.5 vs 8 please refer to my answer here http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/06/20/nokia-drive-for-all-windows-phone-8-smartphones/#comment-567008467

          • epdm2be

            That answers isn’t very convincing. Are you really so naive to think that a few software tweaks (which should have been included from the start) are gonna revive sales of WP7.x devices? Or do you think that WE are so naive?

            Fact is that after Microsoft recent announcements regarding WP8, the majority of people will perceive the WP7-platform as a dead-end and hence will avoid it like the plague. You don’t need a masters degree in economics to see that.

            Anyway YOU think that WP is the right path. I don’t! I KNOW how Microsoft works! Besides I have simple needs (2-way call recording and local outlook syncing) as soon as I find another phone that can offer me this I’m outa of here.

  • mobilesguruji

    Nokia bought NavTeq for 8 billion dollars so that it could give it free to its competitors.

    P.S. Right now Nokia is almost worth the same amount it spent on NavTeq.

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/O73NT74IY2LXQRDZRYDFPRV7DA John

      Well said. This move won’t help with differentiating Nokia WP phones from competitors’ WP phones.

  • asturcon3

    congrats M$, another hit point

  • Mitch_G

    Very terrible news, while manufacturers like Samsung can laugh again. Nokia Maps/Drive were such an advantage of Nokia phones and now they give it away for free. Why not give it also to iOS and Android users?! :/

    • Avatar Roku

      Who said it was given away for free? Very foolish assumption.

    • solomonshv

      probably wont be free. i think this is an awesome way to cash in on their hard work. i own an HTC 8X now (no Nokia 920 will be offered from my carrier). the moment this app hits the application store i’m buying it. don’t care if it’s $5 or $100. and i can guarantee you that i will not be the only one.

      companies like garmin have been selling their garbage navigation apps for $50+ for years on apple app store and got away with it. if nokia prices it right, say $20, it will sell extremely well.

    • http://www.facebook.com/nico.lafertin Nico Lafertin

      All android phones already get navigation .. Microsoft should buy Nokia for doing this because it’s their OS they are selling what would be a flagship phone without a build in Navigation ?? they are called smartphones and Microsoft should take care of their customers on this division

  • http://www.facebook.com/thorsten.hindermann Thorsten Hindermann

    Give this new version to all existing/current  Nokia Lumia users with WP7!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

    Hi @facebook-1340030107:disqus, @Mitch_G:disqus, @mobilesguruji:disqus, @google-31d31ac9c844dc1ab44a1b5419f8a52e:disqus, @facebook-721598536:disqus, @Imago_Dei:disqus, @pdexter:disqus, I thought I’d answer all your questions at once. After all, they are all similar. Hopefully my answer is not going to be too long ;-)

    I would invite you not to stop at the first part of my blog post and to concentrate on the second one, where I talk about the platform. Because you have to understand that since last week our location based offering is not only a differentiator, it’s at the core of our business.

    Look at the impressive numbers: they are the proof that we are basically the world’s largest maps company. Without going too much into details, the business is not only in the apps, it’s also in the maps and in the platform. And it’s a wealthy business if we open our platform to as many partners as possible. As we already do with BMW, Ford, etc.

    This is beneficial to the whole Windows Phone 8 ecosystem. Think about how many apps and experiences can be build on this platform! Developers are going to love it!

    Then there is the consumer facing aspect, of course. Offering navigation to our Windows Phone 8 partners it’s again an ecosystem statement: nowadays people expect navigation to be one of the standard features of a smartphone.
    But location based services are also such a very and rich offering! From POI search, to voice guidance, form traffic alerts to augmented reality to features we have not introduced yet. There is still so much space to differentiate ourselves in the ecosystem! And we can because… we are the world’s largest maps company.

    • epdm2be

      Mr. Pino. After WP7.5′s only 2 years existance NOBODY is gonna buy a WP8 device. Especially not the punters who WILL feel betrayed that their 2012 Lumia 900 will NOT get the upgrade to WP8.

      Besides I wrote over 6 months ago that Nokia ought to create iOS, Android and generic WP7-versions of the app and SELL that to non-Nokia platforms to gain revenue.

      I don’t know who runs the commercial side of Nokia but he or she has absolutely no idea of selling stuff. In fact the entiore marketing devision of Nokia is a complete bunch of ….

      • B_Sack

        I own a 7.5 device, and will be getting a 920.

      • solomonshv

        i owned iphone 4, 4s and iphone 5, galaxy s3, a bunch of blackberries, droid x, droid bionic, etc

        and i now i own a HTC 8X (since verizon doesn’t offer Nokia’s 920). and i’m quiet happy with it. the built in office application are nothing short of amazing, not to mention free. performance is great. and very good voice quality.

        you don’t like it? your loss. now go be worthless somewhere else.

  • Ed_Luva

    Strengthening the point of interest database and broadening the traffic information capabilities would help.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Thank you @Ed_Luva:disqus for your feedback, these are of course fields where we are constantly investing and improving.

  • Avatar Roku

    Who said they’re giving it for free. Manufacturers will have to license it or they’re going to sell it to other manufacturers as an app in the store.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @MatthewStone:disqus, you can read below my extensive answer to this topic.
      Sometimes it’s difficult to understand the difference between a platform and the apps…

  • Sentinel24

    This was.. unexpected. I can only imagine what the Bing Maps team is going through right now.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @Sentinel24:disqus, if you look closer you can see that Bing is already one of our customers together with Yahoo!, BMW, Ford and so on.
      The beauty of a location platform is that anyone can build apps and services on it.

      • Sentinel24

        That fact you consider Yahoo a direct partner,
        the same guys who partnered directly with the Bing team, is ominous.

        Just curiously, how will the mapping experience be branded?

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          I actually used the word ‘customer’. Have a look at the attached screenshot from Yahoo! Maps to understand what I’m talking about.

          When Windows Phone 8 will be officially available you will also see the map branding.

  • http://www.facebook.com/alexander.zinchenko Alexander Zinchenko

    “We collect information from Nokia Drive users and local authorities to provide traffic alerts in 26 countries, and also allow dynamic rerouting” – O RLY? :-O

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Was that a positive reaction? ;-)
      I forgot to mention that we obviously collect anonymous data from Nokia Drive users. So our traffic service is both reliable (authorities) and live (crowdsourcing).

      • http://www.facebook.com/alexander.zinchenko Alexander Zinchenko

        Not so positive.
        I don’t feel so happy myself because I provide you traffic information from my phone. The question was when I start to retrieve such info. You said “and also allow dynamic rerouting” – I don’t see that feature in ND2 ;)
         
        BTW, I found another bug related with POI. Try to find something not so obvious in ND in online mode and then compare the results with in offline mode. E.g, “McDonalds, Moscow, Russia” give almost the same results. But when you try to find “Alfa-bank, Moscow, Russia” in offline mode you’ve get much more POI location insted of in online mode. Obviously, this is not ND bug because I see the same behaviour in Nokia Auto for Symbian.

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Hi @facebook-100000480406659:disqus, I understand your concerns. We value your privacy, which is why we are collecting these info anonymously (we basically want to know how many people are on one street to evaluate the traffic) and you can always opt out (there is an option in Nokia Drive).

          However, we think that some services like this become very powerful when we can give back crowdsourced information.

          But you’re right, in Nokia Drive for Nokia Lumia this feature is not available yet. It is available on Symbian and we are currently porting it. After all, we started developing for Windows Phone only last year. You explicitly asked me not to give you this answer, but I’m sorry, this is really all I can say now.

          I will also look into the bugs you are telling me about. Thanks for bringing them up.

  • Reinout Verslyppe

    Is this available starting today, or when update 7.8 reaches our devices? Does it mean we (non-nokia-wp7-users) can download Nokia Maps too, or just (damn, I’m spoiled) Nokia drive? 

    Sorry, my English isn’t really great. Keep up the good work!

    • Lazengogh

      I hate to say this, and i am NOT sure, but my guess is that Nokia Drive will be for future WP8 devices only. Mainly because you haven’t paid Nokia Drive in your current WP -license. (Unless it’s a Nokia).

      • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

        Hi @google-2e4001ccba8e935cabaabbc42ed64440:disqus and @Lazengogh:disqus, as the title of my post suggest, we are talking here only about Nokia Drive for Windows Phone 8. We have not made any announcement regarding devices with Windows Phone 7.5

  • codeav

    Every post related to an app on this site DOES NOT have a link to marketplace. All the links in the article point to /tags/something. Why can’t you just post the marketplace link? Is it hard? Is it complex ten step process? What prevents you from posting the link to download the app? Contractual obligations?

    • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

      Certain apps are only available to Nokia Lumia smartphones, and they don’t show up in the Windows Phone Marketplace when you search. That means that they’re only searchable on the phone itself and therefore it’s impossible to provide a link here.

      • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

        Hi @codeav:disqus, what @AdFraser:disqus is saying is true. There are no web links to apps which are exclusive to a particular Windows Phone manufacturer. And this is still the case for Nokia Drive, until Windows Phone 8 is released.
        Finding Nokia exclusive apps is anyway quite easy, because they are all available under Nokia collection in the Marketplace.
        If this is not enough, I can always provide you with this QR code you can scan with Bing Vision

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XMYQYXABZX2GVIYNH5F54LAXPM Ej

    First time poster. 2 questions. Well 1 question and 1 suggestion. To make the WP/Nokia Drive(or Lumia in general) more personalized can a Home function be added to Nokia Drive? Would be awesome if you could save a Home address and just tap “Go Home” to find your way home. I figure my personal smartphone should at least know who I am and how to get me somewhere without having to tell it myself ;)  My other question is how do I follow you guys on Twitter? Y’all have my support!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XMYQYXABZX2GVIYNH5F54LAXPM Ej

    BTW..thanks for the great phone and great apps! Hope your WP8 phones knock some socks off :)

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @yahoo-XMYQYXABZX2GVIYNH5F54LAXPM:disqus, thanks for your support and suggestion. The ‘take me home’ feature for Nokia Drive has been already requested by other people: we will definitively look into it ;-) After all we already developed a similar one for Nokia Maps and Nokia Transport…
      If you want to follow us on Twitter please follow @nokia:twitter or you can also follow me at @haikus:twitter

  • snoflake

    Will it run in background for us WP7.8 losers/customers? WIl map data be shared (map base, favourites etc.) be shared between Nokia maps and Nokia Drive for us losers too?

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @snoflake:disqus. I feel your frustration, but try to reconsider your statement. Windows Phone 7.8 isn’t by any means for losers. Your current Nokia Lumia isn’t obsolete just because Windows Phone 8 has been announced. It will get soon new features like WiFi tethering and Flip-to-Silence and media content streaming, new games from Zynga like Draw Something and Words with Friends and of course updates to Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, Nokia Transport, Nokia City Lens and Nokia Pulse. Just stay tuned for the upcoming news!

      • snoflake

         Honestly couldn’t care less about most of the Nokia add ons (if I’d wanted a decent camera I wouldn’t have bought a Lumia so clearly the camera affects aren’t thst interesting). The only add on of interest really is the contacts transfer which is just filling in an absolutely standard feature of other platforms that I didn’t know and can’t believe WP didn’t have (haven’t had cause to try because I’m running WP on second phone as an experiment to see whether I can live with it, so far after three weeks so not very good at all in ownership experience). I don’t really care that much about Nokia maps but if it can’t run in background it’s pretty pointless and if it can’t share favourites to Drive ditto. Transport doesn’t work as well as rival apps in London (and yes I’m running the beta and tried the RTM version before).

        See that’s the thing I want the apps I want not the sad little gestures that Nokia decide to make (and frankly they’re often not that good (see Nokia social on Symbian, the Drive interface and routing selection on the fly is wayy behind CoPilot and Tom Tom even Google Maps). Nokia Pulse please just don’t bother I couldn’t care less nor could anyone else – for starters I don’t know anyone else (literally) with a Windows Phone let alone a Nokia, are you really going to beat FaceBook, Google+/Lattitude (and they’re struggling), Foursquare etc. I don’t think so. I actually don’t like the People Hub integration it’s intrusive and time wasting I want to get to my contacts in one button not wade through tweests pictures, my updates blah blah. If I want twitter or FB I’ll fire up separate apps and I have no, and I mean none, crossover of contacts between FB, Twitter, and LinkedIn and I want it kept like that.

        See this is the crux of where we’ve just been screwed because I want my phone how I want it not MS and certainly not Nokia tell me. I want the apps I choose to extend functionality not the crumbs from the table Nokia choose to hand down to the underclass. With this move I simply won’t get the app functionality I was led to believe would come and was expecting. No BBC iPlayer no Official Betfair …….. and even more none of those little more specialised or local apps that are relevant to only a minority of users but make the iPhone or Android so much more dynamic. All of these sort of apps are developed on constrained budgets a “write once” basis and will want to be able to target Windows 8 and Windows8RT as well as Windows Phone and now they have that ability they will go in that direction which will mean those of us stuck on WP7.x won’t be getting anything.

        Secondly so what about WP7.8 what about system updates in 2013 and 2014, quite reasonable to expect care certainly to 2013 and maybe 2014 from a 2012 device. What are we going to get? I’ll tell you – Nothing,

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Hi @snoflake:disqus, you seem to have made up your mind here. But I do not understand some points.
          You asked me whether you were going to get new features in Nokia Drive. I answered positively.

          Nokia Pulse is still in beta and it’s not meant to replace any social network but to give more options to a standard SMS.

          You prefer 3rd parties apps to Nokia Transport. I believe you are using them now on your Nokia Lumia. They will still work even when Windows Phone 8 is out.

          So will all the other apps you still use. And thanks to the forward compatibility there will be other apps working on both Windows Phone 7.5 (7.8) and 8.

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Hi @snoflake:disqus, you seem to have made up your mind here. But I do not understand some points.
          You asked me whether you were going to get new features in Nokia Drive. I answered positively.

          Nokia Pulse is still in beta and it’s not meant to replace any social network but to give more options to a standard SMS.

          You prefer 3rd parties apps to Nokia Transport. I believe you are using them now on your Nokia Lumia. They will still work even when Windows Phone 8 is out.

          So will all the other apps you still use. And thanks to the forward compatibility there will be other apps working on both Windows Phone 7.5 (7.8) and 8.

          • snoflake

            Yes the apps I use now will work but I purchased a Nokia Lumia on the understanding (heavily promoted by yourselves and Mocrosoft) that many more (and by many I mean 100′s of thousands) and I no longer this will be the case. It will be this case eventually for the Microsoft ecosystem but those of us who bought in early to your devices will not receive these apps coming later this year and especially in 2013 onwards.

            My comment about Pulse whilst a bit harsh was as a despairing shareholder who has seen (and was a user of) Ovi callendar, Ovi contacts, Ovi Chat(?) Ovi files (never used this) all of which came and went.Actually causing me a headache. There’s a horrible ring a familiarity of trying to reinvent someone else’s service about it again.

            All we want is all the apps (or at least >95% excl. games as in other platforms) coming to Windows Phone over the next two years of ownership. I don’t think that’s a lt to be asking out of essentially new devices.

            I hope I’m not coming across as a personal attack on yourself and that you are able to communicate the frustration (yet again with Nokia) that I feel and I’m reading all over the internet further up your reporting chain.

            This announcement may well be the right thing to do from Microsoft’s point of view (and I can see their logic) but it is having a very damaging effect on your customer relations – speaking with my shareholder’s hat on.

  • codeav

    I posted a reply to Pino saying it was my bad and additional comments but it never got posted here since I think it was never approved by the moderator.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Thank you @codeav:disqus, your other answer has been approved ;-)
      Until we find a better solution I will include as many QR codes as possible in my future blog posts.

  • TechInsane

    Moving from 6.1 to 7, now we have to move to 8? I am not sure I want to do this, I have yet to see everything 8 will offer but giving me 7.8 in my view does not put a smile on my face. 808, where art thou you? i still love Symbian so the battle continues between my love win and Symbian.

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  • TechInsane

    Thx pino

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  • nokia101101

    Seems a lot of people bagging WP phones. Just for the record I like Windows Phone much better than the Apple Phone and better than the Nokia’s I have had in the past. The new Lumia is superb but still very happy with HTC HD7 phone.  If you want to see a phone with massive location errors then buy an Iphone. Apart from their silly OS, small screen, over-priced, single hardware supplier, their maps don’t locate you very well either. I’ll stick with WP and a lot of my friends have seen the light also.  But Apple need not worry, their followers are very well hooked and going nowhere. Apple have ditched Google maps and are making their own. I think there will be the big 3 for the next decade or so. Unlike Blackberry, Nokia have made a timely decision.  Like it or not, M$, Gurgle and AppleControl are here to stay.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sachaapril Sacha May

    Pino,

    I am a bit worried about differentiation versus other WP8 devices. Are Nokia Apps really enough to differentiate? What will prevent Samsung from dominating again, as it does in the Android ecosystem?

    It’s already been anounced that the new devices will all use a Qualcomm processor (probably dual core), so differentiation won’t be in the device’s power. I don’t think good cameras and design are enough to beat Samsung and its Galaxy-style hardware.

    Have you considered using the upcoming Intel chips to differentiate? Can you comment on how Nokia plans to dominate the WP8 ecosystem and later iterations? As an investor, these are by far my most worrying concerns, seeing as there is a potential for the transition to succeed and for WP to gain popularity, only to see another OEM take market share again.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @facebook-627880652:disqus, I believe I’ve answered to your question on Twitter.
      For the other readers, please have a look at this blog post: http://nokia.ly/NlkvTQ

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_H7XZGHA4CN5PQYAMAHRAH7WZWM Don Farmer

    Hmmm, voice integration for apps available in Win8 leaks.  I know you worry about distraction for hotel advertising , but try this, a field run using the 900 on your dash and watch you eyes and head movements.  I suggest using the 900 is much safer than a driver without.  In my test with the 900 my eyes moved to the screen and I still had a visual field of the road.  Without the 900, I moved my head in as much as a 45 degree turn to see a hotel’s outside.  A full screen advertisement of a hotel’s outside picture, brought up by saying “hotel” then “next” or “call” (going through up to 5 hotels) may be an advertising income for Nokia and a great stress saver and may enhance safe driving.  Just do not be in front of me if I drive in a city without my Nokia on the dash, I even went a full 75 degree turn without the Nokia.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Good one @yahoo-H7XZGHA4CN5PQYAMAHRAH7WZWM:disqus, I’m sure the Nokia Drive team is already looking into solutions for more richer experience. Of course we always test all the new features for usability, distractions and so on.

  • Marcel Heckel

    Every time
    the “offline” capabilities are highlighted, but with Nokia Drive for
    WP7 you only have a offline Navigation and a silly map (no information in the
    map beside street names and you cannot even adjust it to the north). Why is there no real offline
    location based service as is was provided with Nokia Navigation for Symbian?
     

  • http://twitter.com/NgJi3Qi Ng Jie Qi

    Hi Nokia, I love you and all your innovations, but you probably just shot yourself in your head. Once upon a time, I will tell others that Nokia is the ONLY manufacturers that can provide a satisfying location based service. Not anymore. By all means, get HTC or Samsung as alternative, they work just as well as nokia now. Pity.

  • Marco

    Please, Pino, Nokia Maps + Drive need desperately a lot of POI. Compared with other location service offerings (Google Maps and Yelp) there are a lot less commercial activities listed, at least in Italy! With my Lumia800 it was frustating opening Yelp to find a bank, because Nokia Maps in Milan-ovest found only 3 banks-atm far from me, Yelp found more than 10 instead! I’ve also used Qype, I don’t know if Nokia takes commercial activities from Qype, but I’ve noticed that also Qype lacks in this feature. Fix this to complete the Where offering and crash the competitors’ one!

  • Alejandro Lengua

    Does it mean this software will work on other windows phones?
    Which others?

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      On Windows Phone 8 smartphones

  • d.hill

    Windows phone 8 has been announced, but I still haven’t heard about Nokia Drive being on non-nokia devices yet. Is this still true?

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Yes this is still true and still happening. Nokia Drive is an app that we are going to make available to other Windows Phone 8 partners. The app itself will be released soon, but the other manufacturers and providers will decide how and where to make it available to their customers.

      • Kiran

        Hi Pino,

        Why not release it in the Windows Phone Store? This will enable the users to get the app with ease.

      • Luke

        Yeah I’m with Kiran on this one. Why not just release it in the Windows Phone store? Doesn’t make much sense to me if you leave it up to the manufacturers. They can’t dictate if you put something on the windows phone store. If it’s licensing fees that you’re wanting, give them the option to make it available, and if they don’t, sell it in the windows phone store for whatever they would’ve paid per phone to license it (e.g. $20). Do you realize how many people would do this given how superior Nokia’s services are to other mapping companies. I own an HTC Windows Phone 8X and I would pay for this the first day it came out.

        This whole time I feel like you’ve been a little vague by saying it “will be made available to other Windows Phone 8 partners.” What does that even mean? Can you be more specific, because on the surface it gets many of us non-Nokia owners excited that we are for sure getting this, but after probing this isn’t necessarily the case.

  • d.hill

    Is this still happening? Windows phone 8 has been announced, but this doesn’t appear to be a platform piece they discussed.

  • Breakingillusions

    you are the best windows phone OEM .
    and im still going to buy lumia wp8

  • eeriephenomenon

    Hi, @haikus:disqus I’m just wondering what the current status of this is… a lot of people are asking (which is a great thing)! :)

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @eeriephenomenon:disqus other manufacturers and Microsoft will decide in which countries and on which devices Nokia Drive will be offered to their customers

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=719723436 Julio Escalante Dueñas

    any date Nokia Maps will be part of HTC 8x WP8? I’m planning to return because it does not have turn by turn GPS app

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @facebook-719723436:disqus we haven’t made any announcement about Nokia Maps on non-Nokia smartphones with Windows Phone 8.

  • http://twitter.com/FreeAsIAM FreeAsIAM

    OK – it is 16/12/2012 – a long time (6 months +) since this announcement was made. Still no Nokia Drive available in the Windows Phone Store. Not a mention from Nokia or others… Stick to your guns, and release to the store (even if paid), or apologise for leading us astray. You could of-course make a high end phone available with expandable storage – then there would be no reason left to consider other options.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Nokia Drive is being made available to Microsoft and other WP8 manufacturers. They will then decide how to offer Nokia Drive to their customers.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Orion-Evony/100001847691417 Orion DeEvo

    What about people that want Bing navigation? I had no idea this feature was removed from wp8 and I rely heavily on it. Nokia drive is NOT the same. I actually had to return my Nokia device and go back to my 2 year old HTC just to get Bing navigation back. Sad day now that I know I will never upgrade to a wp8.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Bing does not provide voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation (you have to continuously tap the screen to get the next instruction). Nokia Drive provides exactly this. Which features do you miss exactly?

      • http://www.facebook.com/nico.lafertin Nico Lafertin

        Man i should of waited for the nokia 920 .. but got the ativ S. So i have to contact Samsung if it will be available in my country ? the 920 is still not out in belgium .. waiting 7 months just is too long for me ^^
        But now i don’t have any turn by turn navigation.

  • mikedee

    I can’t believe that such a big company would do such a stupid move. That’s incredible. So, you don’t update 6 month old devices to WP8 and you give away the only “plus” that Lumia had over competitors. Talk about a giant slap in the face. Next device will surely be WP8, but surely not a Nokia. You completely cheated your customers.

  • http://www.facebook.com/nico.lafertin Nico Lafertin

    People seem to forget that Windows phone sells at a low rate
    Microsoft chooze Nokia maps if they would not give it to the other Oems to use their navigation windows phone would officialy become the most lame OS on the market every other OS gets full navigation. Atm my Ativ S does not have Navigation and this for a flagship phone..