ESPOO, FINLAND--(Marketwire - Apr 19, 2011) -
- Unparalleled degree of 3D realism and scale helps people get a feel for
places
before they get there
- Major step in Nokia's plans to bridge real and virtual worlds
Nokia today announced photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan
areas for the web version of Ovi Maps. This immersive and free feature
adds a
new dimension to the Ovi Maps experience and enables people to explore
places in
a completely different way.
Introduced at the Where 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, California, Nokia's
3D
offering is the most realistic available and goes beyond rendering limited
areas
and buildings by making entire cities, including suburbs, available for
exploration.
Starting with a bird's-eye view, people can scale up and down and move
around
objects such as buildings and trees from their desktop, experiencing a
virtual
but super realistic perspective of new places. Road-level imagery completes
the
experience with a detailed 360-degree panoramic view of streets.
With the beta service featuring 20 metropolitan areas, the number of
photorealistic 3D models will increase over time. The road-level imagery is
now
available for five cities, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and San
Francisco.
With the goal of bridging the real and virtual worlds on both mobile and
web,
Nokia's Ovi Maps for mobile covers 180 countries, nearly 100 of them
navigable
in 53 languages. Ovi Maps on the web covers 180 countries, 93 of them
navigable,
in 29 languages.
"Ovi Maps' photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas are a significant
step
towards our vision of bridging the real and virtual world, with
location-based
services being the glue," said Michael Halbherr, senior vice president,
Nokia.
"With Ovi Maps on mobile, Nokia has shown its ability to transform a useful
feature into a mass market experience that lays the foundation for
innovation in
location-based services beyond traditional routing benefits. With its
efforts to
expand the service to the web, Nokia is proving that it offers a holistic
service," said Daryl Chiam, Principal Analyst, Canalys.
Nokia's photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas initially include:
- Barcelona - Miami
- Boston - Milan
- Chicago - New York
- London - Oslo
- Copenhagen - Prague
- Florence - San Francisco
- Helsinki - Stockholm
- Las Vegas - Toronto
- Los Angeles - Venice
- Madrid - Vienna
www.maps.ovi.com/3D
About Nokia
Nokia is committed to connecting people to what matters to them by
combining
advanced mobile technology with personalized services. More than 1.3
billion
people connect to one another with a Nokia, from our most affordable
voice-optimized mobile phones to advanced Internet-connected smartphones
sold in
virtually every market in the world. Through Ovi (www.ovi.com), people also
enjoy access to maps and navigation on mobile, a rapidly expanding
applications
store, a growing catalog of digital music, free email and more. Nokia's
NAVTEQ
is a leader in comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, and
Nokia
Siemens Networks is one of the leading providers of telecommunications
infrastructure hardware, software and professional services globally.
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Source: NOKIA via Thomson Reuters ONE
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