In the world of online mapping companies, mobile apps can be a great product to help prevent drivers and even pedestrians from getting lost while travelling. Now, the Nokia Company is announcing a re-launch of a previously popular mapping app called Nokia HERE Maps.
Nokia HERE Maps, which was called Ovi Maps or just Nokia Maps, brings Nokia’s map and location resources under a single brand. The app’s technology is based on cloud computing and all of its information is thereby located on several remote servers so any customer device can access it and use it. It also utilizes Bing and Yahoo!, providing maps for about 200 countries, with the capability of voice navigation in about 94 countries and indoor mapping for 45 countries.
Now, this powerful tool is being re-launched for use on iOS, after it launched an Android version a few months ago. Nokia says that the app for HERE Maps for iOS is a free download as of March 11. The biggest draw of the application is that it can also store maps so that clients can access them when they are offline and thus save money on mobile network charges. Just download the maps and keep them on your device hard drive to use when needed. However, if you want updated information you will have to go back online to access the newest available Nokia HERE Maps.
Nokia HERE Maps is meant to be Google Maps’ rival on iOS and is expected to be used by drivers as well as pedestrians, as it gives public transportation directions. It can also receive information on live traffic if it is online.
HERE MAPS first came out in 2012, but was taken away from the Apple App Store in December 2013 because the company thought at the time that the recent alterations to iOS 7 hurt the experience of users.
After that incident, it was reborn and launched on Android in August 2014, and then that beta version went live in February 2015. Now, the app is free for use and Nokia makes its profits from HERE Maps via data licensing deals – for instance, through Microsoft and satellite navigation systems that come in some vehicles.
HERE Maps needs iOS 7.0 or later to be used on an iOS device and it has been optimized for usage on iPhone 5 and later, but the mapping app will operate as well on some of the other iPhones, along with iPad and the iPad Touch. It takes up a little over 60 megabytes, which means it is twice the size of Google’s Google Maps.
