Nokia confirms Here maps will return to iOS next year

Posted:
in General Discussion edited December 2014
Finnish telecommunications company Nokia on Wednesday announced that it would bring its Here mapping service --?which has not appeared in native form on Apple devices in nearly a year --?back to iOS with a new standalone app in early 2015.




"Following the positive reviews of HERE for Android, a lot of people have expressed their interest in an iOS version of our app," the company wrote in a blog post. "We really appreciate this interest and demand. Our iOS app development team is working hard on this and we plan to officially launch HERE for iOS in early 2015."

Nokia revealed its plans for a new assault on Apple and Google Maps in September of this year, months after its previous attempt was pulled from the App Store over iOS 7 compatibility problems.

"I'm convinced people are looking for alternatives," Nokia executive Sean Fernback said at the time. "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."

Nokia's newest effort includes voice-guided navigation, the ability to download maps for offline use, and public transit information. Google has long offered those features, while Apple has yet to give users control of tile caching and does not include public transportation data.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    "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."

    Um, no, and that's the problem with Google Maps: the interface keeps changing with such frequent updates, it's a real pain having to keep figuring out how it works.
  • Reply 2 of 16
    I used Nokia's HERE maps just once and found it abysmal. Deleted it and never looked back.
  • Reply 3 of 16

    HA! :smokey:

  • Reply 4 of 16
    bigpicsbigpics Posts: 1,397member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by andyapple View Post



    "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."



    Um, no, and that's the problem with Google Maps: the interface keeps changing with such frequent updates, it's a real pain having to keep figuring out how it works.



    You said it.  Things like where's my simply printable step by step directions on the Mac browser version? Screw all this whiz-bang UI crap where next steps pop up or whatever they're doing instead...



    ...nearly unusable for my current purposes... 

  • Reply 5 of 16
    Pretty sure we can afford to wait on this one.
  • Reply 6 of 16
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post



    I used Nokia's HERE maps just once and found it abysmal. Deleted it and never looked back.



    I have Here Maps on my Nokia and would say it is quite the opposite of abysmal.  There are two products - Maps and Drive.  Drive gives you turn by turn navigation that works very well for me.

     

    The one great thing that differentiates Here Maps and Drive is that you download the map data for whatever country you want and it works offline so you don't need a signal and you don't incur data charges to use it.  The quality of the mapping is second to none and is updated regularly.

  • Reply 7 of 16
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post



    I used Nokia's HERE maps just once and found it abysmal. Deleted it and never looked back.

     

    No kidding, the last Nokia app for HERE maps was awful, a crappy shell over a web-based interface with terrible touch lag.

  • Reply 8 of 16
    joshajosha Posts: 901member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by cnocbui View Post

     



    I have Here Maps on my Nokia and would say it is quite the opposite of abysmal.  There are two products - Maps and Drive.  Drive gives you turn by turn navigation that works very well for me.

     

    The one great thing that differentiates Here Maps and Drive is that you download the map data for whatever country you want and it works offline so you don't need a signal and you don't incur data charges to use it.  The quality of the mapping is second to none and is updated regularly.




    I don't feel I need another Map App on  my iPhone.

    If I want street view of course I use that lovely function of Google Maps.

    For city Maps I find Apple Maps very good, for out of urban use I find Google Maps more useful.

    To save maps to use when I'm not online, I use screen shots and also find Google maps saves some in it's buffer.

     

     Nokia must be struggling for income; would love to get advertising revenue from all the iPhones in active use. 

  • Reply 9 of 16
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    The only proper Nokia Map app is in a Windows Phone, and is actually really good, even include transit info like train schedules, the Android and iOS versions however are very poor implementations, hopefully this new iOS version will follow the W8M version, anything else would just be a waste of time.
  • Reply 10 of 16
    Wait wait wait....an app in the play store and not in the App Store? I've never seen this before...DUH people are going to ask for an iOS version. They want to be able to use it on the phone in the household they DONT have to reboot every 3 hours!
  • Reply 11 of 16
    Originally Posted by Rmb0037 View Post

    Wait wait wait....an app in the play store and not in the App Store? I've never seen this before...

     

    I have. Mainly torrenting apps, “animated wallpapers”, and “widgets”.

  • Reply 12 of 16
    Relevant:
  • Reply 13 of 16
    Originally Posted by cpenzone View Post

    Relevant:




    Always upvote Dodgson.

  • Reply 14 of 16
    I'll download this the day it's available...unless Apple Maps gets full downloads. My wife's Lumia has Here Drive with full UK maps on the phone, plus the full postcode database too. It's embarrassing when I've got no data signal on my iPhone, to ask her to get her phone out so that we can navigate...
  • Reply 15 of 16
    I used Nokia's HERE maps just once and found it abysmal. Deleted it and never looked back.

    I deleted Here maps from my iPhone but tried it on windows phone and it is really good. Works good even when offline, and will reroute you whereas Apple maps and google maps don't in my experience.
  • Reply 16 of 16
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    I just tried the new version of Here Maps for Android, it's no longer a crappy HTML5 version but a complete rewrite that looks and feels like the WM8 version which means the iOS version got a rewrite as well. If this is the case than it's a really good app, free map downloads which means you don't have to be connected to the net. Defiantly worth the install now, the new version, not the crappy old one.
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