Strategy Analytics asked 625 automotive consumers in the US and Western Europe what they used to help them get to where the need to go, and the answer is Google Maps. Despite not having real time turn by turn navigation, or some stupid celebrity voice giving you instructions, Google Maps is what consumers trust and use the most, and I can’t say that I’m surprised. Nokia, who is trying to push Maps on Ovi, or Nokia Maps, or Ovi Maps, or whatever they’re going to call it next month, is all about shoving an endless amount of features into their solution. Nokia Maps has turn by turn navigation, the ability to leave bread crumbs, pedestrian navigation, compass support, data about points of interest provided by 3rd parties such as Lonely Planet, but the one thing that really matters, hell the only thing that really matters, search, is down right terrible.
I live in Helsinki, which is a 20 minute bus ride away from Espoo, where Nokia has their global head quarters. I can’t find that building with Nokia Maps, I have to use Google Maps. “Search Nearby” is also a feature Google Maps excels at, giving me the location of my nearest R-Kioski (Finnish corner store) or Alko (government owned alcohol shops that sell booze with > 5% alcohol). Nokia has 3D rendering of important monuments, and I finally figured out why that is, because the service is too poor to actually bring you to those monuments so you’re going to have to enjoy them on your tiny screen.
[Via: Business Wire]