Nokia survey reveals road navigation habits in Jordan

Exploring new surroundings and mastering an unfamiliar route can be daunting, both on foot and on the road. In a survey conducted by Nokia and Parc research agency, nearly 92% of those surveyed in Jordan felt that having turn-by-turn navigation whilst walking or driving will make them more confident on every journey.

Nokia has started to ship its latest existing smartphones preloaded with Ovi maps to Jordan with free navigation accessories such as free car holders and chargers making in-car navigation an absolute breeze.

The research surveyed over 400 Jordanian to see how people navigate, how confident they feel about navigating and their sense of direction.

The study also revealed that the majority of residents in Jordan, 99%, still rely on street signs to guide them throughout their journey, and asking for directions is still very much a habit in Jordan with 93% of respondent admitting they ask for directions along a journey to a new location.

While 62% of people still use a traditional tourist guide and map to help them find their way in a new town, mobile maps and navigation are increasingly popular with nearly 29% of people surveyed using them. This figure is set to increase as every second of every day someone else downloads the new version of Ovi Maps for their Nokia smartphone. In 3 months, Ovi Maps with free mobile navigation was downloaded over 10 million times: 1 download every second.

A key additional benefit, apart from portability, is that mobile navigation also saves time and fuel as Jordanian said they wasted an average of 11.6 minutes of every unfamiliar journey having to correct mistakes. And instead of sending postcards, people with Nokia smartphones can share their experiences along the way with family and friends through the ‘share location’ feature in Ovi Maps. Pictures taken with Nokia smartphones can become part of users’ Facebook status updates while also displaying their location at the time of the update – this can also help link up nearby friends who want to meet up.

Navigation packages are now available for the 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia E52, Nokia E72, Nokia 5230, Nokia 6710 Navigator and Nokia X6. All new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet travel guides at no extra cost. Existing compatible Nokia devices that can download the new Ovi Maps are Nokia N97 mini, Nokia N97, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia E52, Nokia E72, Nokia 5230, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6730 classic, Nokia 6720, Nokia E71, Nokia E66, Nokia X6, and Nokia N86.

Ovi Maps covers more than 180 countries with car and pedestrian navigation for 77 countries in 46 languages and 6,000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world. For more information visit www.nokia.com/maps. In Jordan, the number of points of interest is 23.797.

Ovi Maps in your Own Voice
If you like the sound of your own voice, or are simply fed up of being told what to do, then Own Voice for Ovi Maps is just for you. Own Voice lets you record and share your own navigation instructions for Ovi Maps, directly from your Nokia. Simply download the app to your device and as quickly as you can say various versions of “Turn left in 200m” 53 times, you’ll have your very Own Voice pack for navigation.

The Own Voice app lets you create a new voice pack, taking you through each step of the process. To kick things off, find a quiet space to record, then let the app take you through each of the 53 required commands including my favourite “You have reached your destination”. When you’re done recording, you simply add your name, hit save and the voice pack is uploaded to the Own Voice website.