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BBC: One million people downloaded Nokia’s free navigation software during the first week of its launch, the company claims.

Ovi Maps have been downloaded 1.4m times overall since the application became available on January 21 2010.

It has been most popular in China, Italy, the UK, Germany and Spain. The service provides different direction information for drivers and pedestrians in 74 countries and 46 different languages.

“We’re averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s executive vice president. He added that the demand for location-based software was growing more quickly than the company had anticipated.

Research by Strategy Analytics suggests that Nokia has 39% of the global smartphone market. Both Nokia and Google now offer free-to-download navigation services, which is putting pressure on the sat-nav industry.

Dutch satellite company Nav4All announced that it is shutting down after its contract with Nokia subsidiary Navteq, a digital mapping company, was not renewed.

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BBC: Phone giant Nokia has launched a free map and navigation service for its handsets that analysts believe could challenge stand-alone sat-nav devices.

The service stores maps on the phone, cutting down the need to update and download new ones over the network.

Ovi maps will initially be available on 10 handsets and will offer so-called “turn-by-turn” navigation, similar to that in existing GPS devices. It can display local data from travel guides, such as Lonely Planet.

Users can also post their location to Facebook. Nokia said that it expects third-party developers to build new applications for the service.

“It’s like a giant mash-up environment,” said Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president of Nokia at the launch.

The firm estimates that it has already sold 83m phones that can use the service, which can be downloaded for free from its Ovi application store.

Mr Vanjoki said that it would be preloaded on all compatible phones offered by Nokia from 21 January.

Previously, Nokia owners had to pay for its premium navigation service. Analysts at CCS Insight said the move could be viewed as a “competitive response to Google”, which also offers a free live sat-nav for its Nexus One handset and the Motorola Droid.

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Reuters: Nokia on Monday began rolling out its much-anticipated online software and content store, Ovi Store, as it aims to follow the success of Apple’s App Store.Nokia said it had started moving Ovi Store to production servers, preparing for the global commercial launch, and the store was opened to users of a few of its phone models in Australia and Singapore on Monday.

Nokia has promised to open the store globally this week.

To cope with slowing phone demand Nokia is building a new business from mobile Internet services — like games or maps — but is scaling back separate investment plans due to the slowdown, and focusing on merging the delivery of services.

Nokia, which made its first ever quarterly pretax loss in January-March, is cutting annual costs at its key handset unit alone by more than 700 million euros ($979.7 million) to counter plunging demand.

The Apple App Store has proved extremely popular, with one billion applications downloaded in less than a year, and operators and technology firms including Vodafone Nokia, and Microsoft now want a piece of the pie.

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PC Advisor: Nokia is expanding the capabilities of its online content-sharing site, Ovi, as it steps up competition with other providers of services that link mobile phones to online services. Users of Nokia phones can now synchronise their contact lists and calendars with an online calendar and address book.

The move brings Nokia closer to competing with other similar online services, including those from Apple and Microsoft.

The new offerings create a service similar to Apple’s MobileMe, but have some differences, too. Whereas MobileMe pushes changes to and from the iPhone, Ovi synchronises the changes per user commands.

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