1.4 million Nokia Ovi Maps downloads since the service went free

.
More than 1.4 million users have downloaded Nokia Ovi Maps since January 21 – when Nokia decided to offer free walk and drive navigation.

1 million downloads were provided within a week from launch, and now Nokia’s serving one download per second.

Most users are installing Ovi Maps with free navigation on phones like Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5230, Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini and Nokia E72.

According to Nokia, the top five countries downloading Ovi Maps are China, Italy, the UK, Germany and Spain.

As previously announced, all new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones launched starting March will include Ovi Maps with free navigation, plus free access to Michelin and Lonely Planet travel guides.

Although this sounds great, it looks like the upcoming smartphones will be a bit more expensive than they would have been if free navigation had not been included. Tera Ojanpera, Nokia’s Executive Vice President Services, recently told Reuters that Nokia believes customers are “willing to pay more for a phone that included a navigation package” and that “most of the additional revenue was expected from the pricier phones.”

So free isn’t exactly free, since you have to pay more for a phone. But that’s still OK.

Via Press release