We are hearing reports this morning that Nokia [NOK] are going to soon be offereing free navigation to smartphone users around the globe.
When Google announced Google Maps Navigation financial trackers saw drops in both TomTom and Garmins shares with in the space of hours and Maps Navigation only covers the US with a relatively small user base. With Nokia though, they are going to be allowing free navigation to users across the globe in 74 countries across 46 languages which will cover about 20 million smart phones.
The one thing that navigation makers like TomTom [TOM2] and Garmin [GRMN] do have that Google Maps Navigation and Nokia Navigation won't have is the ability to be used off line See Update below. Free services tend to use real time data to create routes and if there is no signal on your phone then you wont get a route unlike TomTom and Garmin where you can plan a route anywhere due to maps being stored locally.
There isn't much news about this just yet although with it being released over at Reuters I am sure we'll here something soon. Check out Google Finance to keep track of stock.
Update: We are now hearing that Nokia Navigation will be an off line service meaning that my concerns mentioned about having to have a signal are not important here.
Update 2: You can download it now over here.
Via: Engadget