Nokia caused quite a stir – not to mention a drop in several competitors’ stock prices – when it announced back in January that the ‘Walk and Drive’ navigation component of its Ovi Maps GPS software, would be going from being a paid service to a free product.
The update was originally only released on a select few of Nokia’s higher end devices, like the N97 and E72, with the firm neglecting to release the update for many of its older GPS enabled devices, nor committing to stating which devices would be getting the update.
Instead the firm offered only its vague “more Nokia smartphones expected to be added in coming weeks” response to queries, much to the ire of those owning older flagship devices like the N95, NJ95 8Gb and N96, as well as other GPS enabled Nokia smartphones.
Since the original update only a couple of devices have been added to the list – randomly and without warning – with the company still limiting the free software to newer Nokia devices running Symbian S60V5 or S60V3 Feature Pack 2 phones.
Meanwhile, the likes of the N95 devices running Symbian S60 V3 Feature Pack 1 have been left to languish.
Finally, this week, however, Nokia released an update for the E71 and E66, but said it would be releasing no further free maps updates to its older S60 V3 FP1 phones, like the poor old N95.
Still, Nokia will happily charge you for the service on those devices and give you free maps on all its newer devices, which by all accounts is a good middle of the road compromise.
