Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic a popular handset for Ovi Map downloads

Thursday, February 4th 2010

Over 1.4 million downloads of the new version of Nokia Ovi Maps has been reached, with its 5800 XpressMusic proving a popular handset for the application.

The new version of Nokia Ovi Maps was launched on January 21st 2010 and since then, there have been over 1.4 million downloads.

A week after the launch the one million mark was reached and by the end of the month, China, Spain, the UK, Germany and Italy were the top five countries which downloaded the new Nokia Ovi Maps the most.

It has also been revealed that the Nokia E72, 5800 XpressMusic, 5230, N97 mini and the N97 are the most popular devices which the maps were downloaded to.

Executive vice-president of Nokia Anssi Vanjoki said that an average of a download a second has been achieved, 24 hours a day.

"When we announced free walk and drive navigation we knew it would be a game-changer. The number of people now using their Nokia for navigation, and as a result looking for more location-aware software, is growing faster than even we predicted," he added.

Confirming the popularity of GPS navigation, Chris Jones, vice-president and principal analyst at research firm Canalys, said at the end of 2009 there were already 25.9 million individuals using their mobile phones for GPS navigation.

The popularity of the application could come from the fact that Nokia does not make its customers buy maps for different regions and countries when they are visiting for just a few days.

IT Pro Portal has revealed that it believes the Nokia 5800 is the "ideal budget partner" for its Ovi Maps, with the handset available from £15 per month on a 24-month contract with T-Mobile.