Hey Nokia: NOT ACCEPTABLE!!!

The N900 is my FIRST Nokia phone, and the very-blatant lack of support for this device(that launched 1 MONTH ago) from Nokia pretty much insures that this is my LAST Nokia phone. My nearly 2 year old iPhone 3G has turn by turn navigation. I was wrong to think that Nokia would try release a competitive product, because it is clearly NOT competitive.

I would have to disagree with you there, yes its bad they gave ovi maps free for everyone else except the n900, But lets look at the big picture. Maemo 5 is the best open source os i have seen out so far and to compare it to iphone os because of one missing program isnt at all logical.

Now as it stand sygic are working on turn by turn navigation for the n900 and i have to say that program is looking pretty damn good(Alot better then ovi maps thats for sure).

From nokias point of view the n900 was made so that people like us(small time programers) Dont have to wait for nokia or any other developer to make an application we want as we have the tools to do it oureselves. Thats the number reason why i bought the n900 in the first place, come one the iphone didnt even support mms when it came out and it tooks three years to get it, For the n900 it took just over a month and its getting better and better(thanks frals).

The way i see it im thankful that we get an open source os instead of ovi maps(which isnt all that good if you ask me).

Ovi Maps is not the only thing which makes Nokia look bad among competitors... I do agree that Maemo openess is a great aspect, but there are things like syncing with Ovi Services and compatibility with Ovi Suite that should be ready by product launch and now don't even have a date to be available!!

Back to Ovi Maps navigation, I would recommend everybody to check Nokia official site for N900. Among its features they clear stated that Ovi Maps has free routing, no word or advise that it don't have voice guidance... which can be a common assumption since even Nokia Maps 1.0 had it. The only way consumers could know it was by researching at forums and reviews!

From my point of view, it is invalid the argument that the owner should had researched before byuing N900 and thus shouldn't be complaining now. By consumer rights the supplier is the responsible for instructing their clients about what they product can or can not do, and I think Nokia lead customers to believe they would have an usefull GPS app (voice guided, turn-by-turn navigation).

I seem to recall seeing "premium" features (such as turn-by-turn navigation) of Ovi Maps being mentioned as a feature of the N900 (at a cost) on an official Nokia page. Of course, I can't find any trace of it now... if there was any mention of this Nokia removed it, and the wayback machine is failing me. Googling hasn't yet turned up official Nokia word on the subject. Maybe someone can confirm that I'm not going crazy and that Nokia deceived us and falsely advertised a feature?

Please stay on focus in this thread. There is a full forum for you to discuss anything else.

Also take into account that we use Brainstorm to improve collaboration, not to argue about the decisions communicated. The easiest for us would be to say nothing until official release announcements are made.

If you want turn by turn navigation for Fremantle then at least Sygic is working on this: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34409

What the Brainstorm resolution is saying is that free car and walk navigation worldwide as explained at http://maps.nokia.com/explore-services/ovi-maps will be delivered in Harmattan.

We haven't announced or discussed anything about this version delivered in the Harmattan timeline supporting the N900 or not.

Posts not related to Ovi Maps have been moved to the Maemo 6 / Harmattan on N900? thread, where they belong. Please let's stick to "Ovi Maps - Turn by Turn Navigation" here.

Perhaps now would be a good time for Nokia to discuss why Nokia is turning their backs on a brand new device and implementing turn by turn navigation on their MUCH cheaper line-up? The lack of an 'official word' from Nokia about this feature ever coming to the N900 is extremely disheartening.

Will it have offline POI search? Please?

Because it really bugs me when I try to search for POI on the current Ovi Maps on the N900 and I cant because there's no active connection (I don't have 3G.. )

when I bought my N900 I really did not even think about the possibility it not having voice guided navigation. Turn by turn navigation + no voice, is no safe way to navigate and drive. Should actually be prohibited by law. I compare it to reading SMS while driving.
I just hope that my smartphone e71 (which I by the way use as phone, not N900- being an early adopter of 770 after waiting for a 3G version for 5 years) gets free navigation...

A technical answer:

Voice assisted turn-by-turn navigation was already implemented in Symbian. What has changed is the licensing: paid service before and now free. This is a complex business changes followed by a rather simple technical implementation.

The same feature was not implemented in Maemo and a change in the business strategy doesn't change the fact that the feature needs to be implemented and, well, it's not a trivial one.

The Maemo 5 Ovi Maps app is not based in any of the official frameworks of Maemo 6. Therefore (again, form a technical point of view) it makes sense to focus on the Harmattan version. Let me insist that nobody has said anything about that version running or not on the N900.

Voice assisted turn-by-turn navigation for Maemo 5 will be available as a paid app from a software vendor. This matches the usual offering, even if (true) it doesn't yet match the very high standard Nokia has just set (currently for Symbian devices).