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Nokia Preparing to Launch New Offline Maps App for iOS

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,557
30,887



After pulling its HERE maps app due to incompatibilities with iOS 7, Nokia is headed back to Apple's mobile platform with a new offline maps application that'll compete with Google Maps and Apple Maps. The app is in the final stages of development and expected to land before the end of the year, reports the Wall Street Journal.

nokia_here_maps.jpg
Nokia's previous version of HERE Maps for iOS​
Nokia is introducing its new maps app to customers who are tired of their existing navigation apps and are looking for an alternative solution.
"I'm convinced people are looking for alternatives," Mr. Fernback said. "Google Maps is a good solution for many, their maps work very well, but it has looked the same and done the same for a long time."
Click to expand...
Nokia will set its maps apart from its competitors by offering offline access to both navigation and searching. The new Nokia maps app will be offered for free in the iOS App Store once it passes through Apple's App Store review process.

Apple's Maps has been heavily criticized since it launched alongside iOS 6. The company slowly has been improving its mapping experience, adding features such as Flyover and expanding the points of interest available to users, but significant changes are still in the works. An overhaul of the underlying maps infrastructure and the addition of major features such as public transit directions may have been bumped from iOS 8 and pushed off to a future iOS version due to internal strife at the company.

Article Link: Nokia Preparing to Launch New Offline Maps App for iOS
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/03/nokia-offline-maps-ios/
C

captain cadet

macrumors 6502
Sep 2, 2012
417
648
So wait, they took their app down as they found IOS unusable for here maps, but wait! few months on there back with another app.... wonder how long this will last
 
S

Stroper

macrumors newbie
Jun 25, 2010
4
0
Their old app was horrible and was mainly a bad attempt to promote their own phones.
Now however they have sold their phone division to Microsoft. And so they can make the best possible map app for other mobile OS. If you've used NokiaMaps on a WindowsPhone, you'll agree it's good.
PS. Nokia still exists, they just sold their phone division to MS, and MS has also bought a licence to use the name Nokia togheter with the maps.
 
MozMan68

MozMan68

macrumors demi-god
Jun 29, 2010
6,073
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South Cackalacky
Stroper said:
PS. Nokia still exists, they just sold their phone division to MS, and MS has also bought a licence to use the name Nokia togheter with the maps.
Click to expand...

Not quite...Microsoft will use the Lumia name. They actually started re-branding the apps on Windows Phones today from Nokia to Lumia.

Maps are not branded Nokia...they are all called "HERE" as in "HERE Drive+," HERE Maps," "HERE Transit," etc.
 
hvfsl

hvfsl

macrumors 68000
Jul 9, 2001
1,867
185
London, UK
Well if they allow you to create a custom route with way points on your computer and then upload to your phone, it will have 1 big advantage over the competition.

Went on a long bike ride recently and spent ages creating the route on Google maps (on my Mac). I thought it would then be a simple matter of emailing the link to my phone and opening in Google Maps. Except this isn't possible (on iOS or Android), it just creates the fastest route from A to B. Apple maps only allows 1 way point so wasn't much better. So in the end I found a free cycling app that can import the Gmaps route, but as I found out when cycling, the turn by turn directions it gives was very poor. I had to switch to Google Maps and create a new route every time I got to a major waypoint.

I have since switched to using Navigon which has the ability to create custom routes inside the app, but it would still be a lot easier if I could create on a computer instead.
 
O

organic bond

Cancelled
May 5, 2007
226
192
MozMan68 said:
Not quite...Microsoft will use the Lumia name. They actually started re-branding the apps on Windows Phones today from Nokia to Lumia.
Click to expand...

Not quite...Nokia phones are still called Nokia. There are different types of Nokias, one is called Lumia. In fact I own a Nokia Lumia 925. Great phone! Mind you... And I have been using Apple computers since 1981, but an iPhone... meh... that amount of money just for a smartphone? No, thanks. And yes, is uses Windows Phone 8.1, quite nice in fact. Oh, BTW, great maps, unlike Apple's. And they can be used offline.
 
n-evo

n-evo

macrumors 68000
Aug 9, 2013
1,765
1,484
Amsterdam
If Nokia's new maps app is actually a native app now instead of a repackaged website I'd love that. The first attempt at an iOS app was complete and utter crap and should have never made it from the drawing board. It was a huge disappointment when in fact I was looking forward to see what they did.
 
L

lunarworks

macrumors 68000
Jun 17, 2003
1,972
5,213
Toronto, Canada
That'll be nice.

Sometimes I make short cross-border trips into the US, and can't use Apple or Google Maps because roaming charges are insane. HERE Maps saved to my phone would be so useful.
 
SockRolid

SockRolid

macrumors 68000
Jan 5, 2010
1,560
118
Almost Rock Solid
MacRumors said:
... Nokia is headed back to Apple's mobile platform with a new offline maps application that'll compete with Google Maps and Apple Maps. ...
Click to expand...

So now there's a map war. Boring.
Almost as boring as the browser war.

Oh, and good luck with that whole Windows Phone thing, Nokia. Yeah.
 
irnchriz

irnchriz

macrumors 65816
May 2, 2005
1,034
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organic bond said:
Not quite...Nokia phones are still called Nokia. There are different types of Nokias, one is called Lumia. In fact I own a Nokia Lumia 925. Great phone! Mind you... And I have been using Apple computers since 1981, but an iPhone... meh... that amount of money just for a smartphone? No, thanks. And yes, is uses Windows Phone 8.1, quite nice in fact. Oh, BTW, great maps, unlike Apple's. And they can be used offline.
Click to expand...

I quite like windows phone and I even bought a Lumia 930 as a second phone but talk about carrying a brick about with you! Not to mention the purple screen tinge and overheating battery. And the here maps were crap, missing lots of POI around my area, not that Apple or Google are any better mind you.

Might give the HTC win phone a go if it comes to the UK.
 
T

theanimala

macrumors 6502
Mar 2, 2007
440
228
I have a nokia Lumia 920 for work and my own phone is the iPhone 5S, and I hate the Here maps program more than Apple Maps. It is ugly and the POI's are off. Google Maps for me.
 
MozMan68

MozMan68

macrumors demi-god
Jun 29, 2010
6,073
5,158
South Cackalacky
organic bond said:
Not quite...Nokia phones are still called Nokia. There are different types of Nokias, one is called Lumia. In fact I own a Nokia Lumia 925. Great phone! Mind you... And I have been using Apple computers since 1981, but an iPhone... meh... that amount of money just for a smartphone? No, thanks. And yes, is uses Windows Phone 8.1, quite nice in fact. Oh, BTW, great maps, unlike Apple's. And they can be used offline.
Click to expand...

Not not quite...:p

You were referring to Maps and that is what I quoted from you.

The phones are still called Nokia, but most doubt that will last for long... really just the transition period.

As I stated... correctly... Microsoft has already started re-branding Nokia branded apps as "Lumia" today. The phones will most likely follow as new ones developed since the purchase are introduced. Microsoft would be crazy to drop Nokia initially as most know (except for the blinded Apple fanboys on here) that Nokia is a monster in the phone market GLOBALLY.

But Microsoft being Microsoft will most likely re-brand the phones over the next year as either "Lumia," "Microsoft" or both.
 
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