So...what's going to happen to satnav in the future?

[Bartmanekul]

Tom toms shares have already fallen by 11% with the announcment made by Nokia (thanks Tommie for the link), and Garmins fell 4%.

The analyst also said that people will now expect satnav for free, now that Google and Nokia are giving it away, 2 of the biggest names in mobile phones.

And they will. If your going to buy a smartphone, wouldn't having free satnav be a definate factor in choosing?

And Nokia are making sure people get the message. I have just seen an advert on the yahoo news page.

But it's a double blow for some makers. Nokia own Navteq, who provide mapping for many of the top satnav makers.

As smartphones get cheaper, more people will buy them. And they can be more practical than dedicated satnav units.

For starters, you don't have to have a large bulky device stashed in your car.

It's far less of a theft risk, since phones are not left in cars, and are certainly not as obvious.

It has wireless capability - chances are you will already have a data contract. Being able to get data enables it to do more, such as get weather, traffic data, update speed cameras on the fly, and so on.

It can easily send your location to a friend, whom is more likely to have a compatible device. It doesn't have to be a Nokia either. Google Maps, Route66, and Ovi Maps all use the same format for storing favourites. So you can send something from Ovi maps and anyone with google maps on their device (which covers almost all smartphones on the market) can use it.

Cost, while a smartphone costs a lot, it's something many people would have anyway. A dedicated satnav unit can cost well over a hundred pounds, with only the unknown makes under £50.

But by far the biggest advantage is the fact it's on a mobile phone, meaning you are going to have it with you. Chances are it won't be stashed in the glove compartment, when you really need it, you'll have it.

Satnav has always had me interested, and I think we are going to see a massive change in the next few years, not least in seeing the dedicated units rapid decline.

Some of us mobile geeks warned many years ago when it came out on the N95 that makers should be looking at getting more into the mobile market. But most of them didn't listen.

[buxz777]

ha ha the free sta nav has me looking for a cheap 5800 again bart lol :-)

what a bargain :-) free map updates too :-)

really impressed by this ''free'' navigation really good move by nokia :-)

[Bartmanekul]

That's another thing, I'm looking for one for my GF, and the 5800s have shot up in price since this announcement!

[Tommie]

According to research firm Canalys,
the number of people worldwide using GPS navigation on their mobile phones was approximately 27 million at the end of 2009.
With this announcement Nokia potentially grows the size of this installed user base to about 50 million by enabling smartphone owners,
with compatible devices and devices that will be made compatible shortly to activate free drive and walk navigation
through a simple download of the new Ovi Maps.

Nokia will further grow this base as it quickly adds more smartphones to the compatible devices list.
Canalys also estimated in 2009 that the installed base of smartphones with integrated GPS was 163 million units worldwide,
of which Nokia accounted for more than half (51%) having shipped cumulatively 83 million GPS devices.

This is a game changing move. By leveraging our NAVTEQ acquisition, and our context sensitive service offering,
we can now put a complete navigation system in the palm of your hand,
wherever in the world you are, whenever you need it – and at no extra cost,” continued Anssi Vanjoki.
“By adding cameras at no extra cost to our phones we quickly became the biggest camera manufacturer in the world.
The aim of the new Ovi Maps is to enable us to do the same for navigation.”

By removing the added costs for consumers Nokia expects to fuel the take-up of mobile maps
and navigation providing its ecosystem of partners with clear business opportunities:

-For operators:

Nokia believes it will enable them to offer their customers a complete car and personal navigation package
as well as encourage the take-up of data plans.
An additional benefit for operators is that Ovi Maps uses a unique hybrid technology that is optimized for use on a mobile network.
By using advanced vector graphics, plus an intelligent combination of pre-loaded and online maps,
the new version of Ovi Maps uses a fraction of the bandwidth of the bulky bitmap technology usedby most mobile map providers.

-For 3rd party application developers:

Making navigation on a mobile as familiar as sending a text or taking a picture presents a huge opportunity
as the customer base for additional location-based applications expands.
Via the Ovi for Developers Beta Program, Nokia has given selected developers and publishers
a preview of the Ovi APIs and SDK – Beta (software development kit) which will allow them to build such applications.
These will then be made available through Ovi Store by Nokia.

From Nokia makes walk and drive navigation free on its smartphones

Some 1.1 billion people around the world use Nokia phones today and if
I had be a developer , the choice be easy.

About navigation , I for sure would not pay for turn-by-turn navigation ,
special now when all the new Nokia smartphones will have this preinstalled from March.

[Guest37]

I personally would still pay for the best mobile sat nav solution, despite Ovi being free. What I hope this means is the third party sat nav software developers will have to reconsider their pricing and we'll see a reduction in prices. Especially TomTom, who seem to live in a little world of their own.

[Tommie]

But Logan if you want the best mobile sat nav solution today you can get it free from OVI,
ofcorse you can give tomtom or some one els your money if you feel for it.

[Tommie]

But I wonder what happends later on ?
Like when I see all the news NAVTEQ brings in with new 3D maps and so on
it be interesting time ahead for sure http://corporate.navteq.com/data.html

special when Nokia start bring in their new wawe of Symbian 3 & 4^ smartphones and the high tech Maemo 6 in the spring ,
if not the other make the same deal with free walk & drive navigation , the choice be easy for a consumer or what you think?

[dkhanal]

Has anyone ever thought of how many people use their freakin' phone for navigation? I would say less than 5%...come on...in real life....phone doesn't work as well as Garmin or whatever else there are in the market does....its not the free navigation maps that sells the phone..its the real phone that sells the it...I just posted an article in the Lounge about iPhone taking over the world..read it people..:)

[Micky]

Lets hope the aging 24-32 American Satellites can keep up to the demand. Its all too easy to take these for granted. Did you know, they do get switched off from time to time too.

This could be one of the biggest fails in the history of the United States as the Air Force is doing well. All GPS devices might not work next year as the US GPS satellites are old and rusty, and it’s very likely that the Air Force will not be able to finish the modernization process on time. The US Air Force doesn’t have enough funds, and the money that are available were mismanaged and everything points to that fact that Americans will be not be able to use their GPS devices next year.

Article from earlier this year.

The GOA report says that old satellites will fail as of 2010, the current IIF satellite program has exceeded the costs by $870 million, while the next-gen IIIA GPS satellites will no be finished on time. The launch of the first IIF satellite will occur in November 2009, although it was originally scheduled for November 2006.

[Evil Genius]

Originally Posted by dkhanal

...in real life....phone doesn't work as well as Garmin or whatever else there are in the market does....

errrr......i have Garmin installed on my 5800 and it is still, in my opinion, the best satnav software for symbian mobile phones.

the only drawback is that there is no free map update but i'll certainly be using Garmin over Ovi until it becomes too outdated.