Ovi Maps APIs will be supported in Windows Phone 7 Mango

June 26, 2011 | By Surur

nokiaovimaps

We know that Ovi Maps forms a big part of the partnership between Microsoft and Nokia. From this post in Nokia’s developer forums we learn that Nokia’s existing developer APIs for Ovi maps will also be supported in Windows Phone 7 Mango, which should help developers port their existing apps to Windows Phone 7 easily.

We already know Nokia is now very dependent on Microsoft executing well, but it seems the solutions of the two companies will also become incredibly intertwined, with Nokia’s Ovi Maps becoming a central part of the Windows Phone 7 offering for all OEMs, suggesting even if Microsoft did not actually take the step of marrying Nokia, they will certainly be living together very soon, with neither company able to step away cleanly from the partnership without significant disruption.

Thanks Tony for the tip.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged mango, microsoft, nokia, ovi maps, windows phone 7.5

GP007

I was expecting as much. Ovi Maps and Bing Maps should start merging their data to make a unifide maps service which would really give Google Maps a run for it’s money on a global scale.

appie flappie

Funny. Google Maps isnt that great. Ovi maps is an offline maps app with free navigation. Much better in my opinion.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=703052277 Jens Veraa

Sooooo.. Every device will be getting ovi maps? Or only the nokia devices?

Anonymous

Nokia maps it will be called.. they ditch the Ovi brand and it will be available for all other brands. That was one of the main reasons they actually ditched the Ovi brand.
Just Visiting

That’s a good question. Not sure why HTC and others should get the sales benefit of Nokia technology since HTC and others aren’t bringing anything to the table to help benefit WP. Nokia Maps should be the main distinction between Nokia and the other OEMs so as to incent consumers to purchase Nokia devices over the others. Perhaps the other OEM devices will have access to Nokia maps but at an additional cost, whereas on the Nokia devices the service will be free?

Anonymous

Because it will benefit WP7 to have Nokia Maps on other phones. One of the problems with Microsoft has been bringing all of their products to a worldwide market. Now with Nokia maps and it’s extensive coverage of Europe and other parts of the world, WP7 can now have voice-activated turn-by-turn navigation. Something that Bing Maps only does well in the states.

But you’re right that other OEMs have done a poor job at supporting WP7 with desirable hardware.

Anonymous

Lets hope that this means the horrible “tap for voice directions” in Mango is ditched before release for proper voice navigation by Nokia Maps.

Anonymous

dont hold me to this… but as I understand, the voice directions work fine while you are driving, ie, when you are moving, it will automatically move to the next dot of interest, and when it moves to that dot, it will speak it to you. HOWEVER, most of the reviews have been done without actually driving around, so the only way for them to get the voice was by tapping on it.

Not 100% sure, but I think thats the case.

guest

pocketnows review had him driving in the car to test it and it didnt talk unless he tapped the screen. it only made a sound when he took a correct turn and a different sound when he made an incorrect one.
Monkey D Black

the maps move and rotate as you go along. each time you make a turn according to the it will notify you with a sound to indicate you made a correct turn. you tap the screen for the phone to read your direction out loud. it’s not completely hands free but it works.

Anonymous

I’m really hoping the Ovi 3D maps makes it to WP7 especially if MS makes a big push to have more cities and locations covered by it. It is truly astounding technology and should get a place of prominence on WP7
Anonymous

I’m really hoping the Ovi 3D maps makes it to WP7 especially if MS makes a big push to have more cities and locations covered by it. It is truly astounding technology and should get a place of prominence on WP7

Anonymous

Nokia already has lot of local support for areas where they are already strong.. Europe and Asia.. whiles MS is somewhat strong too in North America and to some extent UK.

Heretic

Finally some good news about WP7. Applications that actually work. Unless MS plans to neuter Ovi Maps somehow or charge money for it (Nokia users will get it for free I assume).

Just Visiting

I personally, am in favor of this solution, as I do not think that the other OEM’s should get to benefit from Nokia’s technology for free. Nokia services should be the differentiator between Nokia and the other OEM’s.

Anonymous

Nokia bought a mapping company from Germany back in 2006 known as Gate5 and has been improving it ever since. they also bought a digital map supple called NAVTEQ Corp. so their mapping solutions is one of the best around, comparable to TomTom and Garmin.

Nokia maps is going to be merged into Bing or become the primary mapping solution for WP7 so it should be available to all wp7 handsets not just Nokias.. in fact that was the main reason they had to ditch the Ovi brand.

Just Visiting

@jrtorrents…So other than build quality and design aesthetic, what is it about a Nokia device that will differentiate it from HTC, Samsung, LG?

Anonymous

Nokia will be having its own appstore. I’ve heard Elop repeat a number of times that we would depreciate on offering localized solution.. so for instance where I live there are special apps for bus,metro, train, newspapers, social networking, chat clients etc.. all which are not available yet on wp7. From what I understand Nokia will be working hard to bring some of these apps to their own marketplace. We should also expect to see the Nokia labs come to wp7

http://www.telecomseurope.net/content/nokia-bets-highly-localized-apps

Just Visiting

Hmmm. Seems like Nokia sold the farm!

http://www.facebook.com/people/Milad-Bazzaz/100000479683479 Milad Bazzaz

I hope they are merging Bing Maps and Nokia Maps. If they are 2 seperate apps it would be considered a fail. They can compliment eachothers and the more things are integrated, the easier for consumers to use those services.

http://www.facebook.com/nizzon Johan Nilsson

Indeed.
Anonymous

They will be integrating Nokia Maps into Bing. I heard Steve Ballmer say it a couple of times during their partnership with Nokia press-conference that we will be hearing something like, like Bing maps Powered by Nokia. But since Nokia didn’t have any input into Mango it will take a while before it gets deeply integrated into the OS .(perhaps with the Apollo update) Maybe for the time been will have a separate app for with ovi-maps-like features and Bing Maps on its own.. but am only speculating.

http://www.facebook.com/jason.duffus Jason Duffus

It shouldn’t be to hard to integrate the Nokia services (Ovi) mapping API into the client. we will see the API integrated for Mango, but the API for non WP7 Bing while come a bit later. but am only speculating as well.
http://www.facebook.com/jason.duffus Jason Duffus

It shouldn’t be to hard to integrate the Nokia services (Ovi) mapping API into the client. we will see the API integrated for Mango, but the API for non WP7 Bing while come a bit later. but am only speculating as well.

Anonymous

I think if Nokia want to rule the OEM of Windows Phone 7/8, and they should differentiate themselves from others. This Ovi Map app should only be on Nokia Phones. I’m planning to ditch my HD7 phone for Nokia because this would added honey to already a sweet deal!

http://www.facebook.com/nizzon Johan Nilsson

That would mean that we in Scandinavia etc that has other OEMs would suffer when it comes to apps that use mapping-data.
Now that MS has made this deal with Nokia they will not put any effort in improving Bing Maps over here.
http://www.facebook.com/nizzon Johan Nilsson

That would mean that we in Scandinavia etc that has other OEMs would suffer when it comes to apps that use mapping-data.
Now that MS has made this deal with Nokia they will not put any effort in improving Bing Maps over here.

Anonymous

Ms unlike Google never really do their own mapping they buy mapping data fro other companies so if Nokia is providing it to them as part of their partnership why should they worry themselves. Ovi Maps is one of the best around anyway.

http://www.facebook.com/nizzon Johan Nilsson

Exactly. So if they do like tkadrum says people with Samsungs and HTCs in scandinavia/europe are screwed.

Just Visiting

Not so sure…If Nokia maps are made available to the other OEM’s, you could still get access, but perhaps you pay to get the services (either you pay or the OEM’s pay to license the technology). Or perhaps, you won’t get the full scale of Nokia Map services – i.e. Nokia devices would get the full scale version of the services, while others would get a usable, but scaled down version.
Anonymous

Microsoft won’t stop improving Bing. It’s too important to them.

Anonymous

Part of the reasons they killed the Ovi brand was that they were going to have the Ovi maps integrated into Bing. So you should expect to see something like the ‘ovi maps app” available on all phones not only on Nokia phones.. There have a lot of room to differentiate like Nokia will be having their own appstore on top of the current appstore which will sell apps exclusively to Nokia phones.

Anonymous

I don’t really understand that concept. whats the incentive for develoeprs to make apps for nokias marketplace rather than the regular windows phone marketplace? My guess is the nokia one will provide more api’s for things like ovi maps not in the normal marketplace.

Anonymous

Nokia already has some good partnership with their developers… like developers who are developing for Symbian for instance. Nokia is having a special program with them so they could switch to developing for wp7 at no extra cost. Nokia(normally it costs 100bucks) will be having their own wp7 appstore so I presume then will encourage them to port some of the apps and games which were already available on Symbian .or even create new ones altogether.

Just Visiting

Wow, gotta disagree here. I have a N8 (and love it), and while the Ovi Store is ‘OK’ I don’t find their selection of apps all that compelling. Given that their store has been open for nearly two years, it should definitely have a better selection. And guess what? No Kindle app! Even WebOS has the Kindle app!
Anonymous

I have a wp7 phone (omnia 7) and I can tell you the wp7 marketplace has a long way to catch up with selection of apps available on Nokia. I used a friends n8 for a .. although I never like the feel of Symbian liked the selection of apps. Ovi maps had every good app avalable on wp7 and even much more (ofc. there are a few selection like kindle). Maybe you need to use a wp7 to see how poor the marketplace is compared to Nokia. Even more some of the premium games/apps (fruit ninja, angrybirds,wassap etc) are available on Nokia for free. I wish they will get some of these premium apps on wp7 when the finally move over
Anonymous

http://www.intomobile.com/2011/02/02/nokia-ovi-store-30000-apps/

according to that url the ovi store had 30,000 apps in febuary. wp7 currently has 25,000. Regardless of that, none of those apps will work on windows 7 anyways, they have to start from scratch.

I’m sure many of the ovi store developers may like nokia, but I don’t see what’s their incentive to submit their recoded wp7 apps to nokias store rather than the much broader microsoft wp7 store. Considering the costs involved in making an app, $100 seems like a trivial amount of money, and if someone told me i could submit all my apps, without having to change any code, to an app marketplace with access to ALL windows phones as opposed to just one brand for a measily $100, i’d take it.
Anonymous

I think you probably didn’t understand what i wrote. Maybe I could explain myself better. I never said the 30000 apps already available on Symbian is going to work on wp7 I said they might port it to wp7 or create a new one altogether.

Nokia is doing more than wave off the $100 for them to join the wp7 development.. they are organizing migration courses for them to be able to get on to wp7 easily as well as giving them developer phones, giving them $1000 worth of Nokia hardware etc.. all these information are available on their developer website.

In the end they will be getting some sort of benefit to develop exclusive for Nokia phones than for the whole platform.. Agian these are not just any developers they are developers Nokia has been working for them.. ak yourself why they have not developed for wp7 all these while but have decided to just as Nokia went onto partnership with MS. Sometimes developers make certain apps for certain platforms because they are incentivised . ask yourself why is Netflix on wp7 but not on android? you would have thought on android they would have lot more users?
Anonymous

nokia can give people phones and hardware etc, but that won’t make them want to only develop for nokia. they can take that hardware and skills and use them to make apps for the regular windows marketplace. i don;t see what incentive nokia can offer besides pay them the difference for what they’d have had they released the app in the wider marketplace, the same as microsoft do with some studio to get exclusive xbox titles. that, or offer nokia uniuqe apis that only nokia app store apps can access.

as for asking myself why previous nokia developerers have suddenly jumped aboard windows phone 7 since the nokia ms deal, i’m not sure i know that they have. but i figure it would be mostly because the think the platform will be succsessful.

as for why netflix is on wp7 and not android, the *exact* reason for that according to netflix is because android doesn’t currently have good enough drm support, while sindows phone does.
Anonymous

http://www.intomobile.com/2011/02/02/nokia-ovi-store-30000-apps/

according to that url the ovi store had 30,000 apps in febuary. wp7 currently has 25,000. Regardless of that, none of those apps will work on windows 7 anyways, they have to start from scratch.

I’m sure many of the ovi store developers may like nokia, but I don’t see what’s their incentive to submit their recoded wp7 apps to nokias store rather than the much broader microsoft wp7 store. Considering the costs involved in making an app, $100 seems like a trivial amount of money, and if someone told me i could submit all my apps, without having to change any code, to an app marketplace with access to ALL windows phones as opposed to just one brand for a measily $100, i’d take it.

Guestouille

I really cannot wait to get my next Nokia WP7 phone

By the way, in addition to Nokia Map, I’m pretty sure that Nokia will have some brilliant other ideas to make WP7 even better.
The cooperation Nokia/Microsoft is the best thing that happened to WP7 recently.
Anonymous

Ok I just did a quick check on Nokia’s website and there is a confirmation that Nokia Maps will be integrated into Bing. here is a quote

“Additional revenue opportunities though new combined services, for example: Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience.”

http://www.developer.nokia.com/Develop/Windows_Phone/
Anonymous

Ok I just did a quick check on Nokia’s website and there is a confirmation that Nokia Maps will be integrated into Bing. here is a quote

“Additional revenue opportunities though new combined services, for example: Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience.”

http://www.developer.nokia.com/Develop/Windows_Phone/