Nokia Powered Maps on WP8 a Potential Problem?

[niyoko]

I've read that Microsoft will be switch to Nokia's mapping technology for the default Windows Phone Map application. This looks like it could be very worrying to those, like myself, that don't live in "major" markets for Nokia. Is there a way to test the road detail quality of the Nokia Maps application before I purchase a Window Phone 8 device or Lumia?

Bing Maps had lagged FAR FAR behind in getting accurate and detailed maps for Japan. So when Windows Phone launched with Mango in Japan, the Maps application was unusable. I turned to the gMaps application for help. Since Bing Maps was updated about a year ago, all has changed. Bing Maps and the Maps application are very usable for navigation.

But now that Nokia is going to be powering the Mapping tech. on Windows Phone 8 it appears that we are going back to square one. Is Windows Phone going further back in mapping quality than Apple??

This is what has me worried, search for any location in Japan and compare it Nokia Maps and Bing maps. I'm using Akita City in Akita Prefecture as my example because I frequently visit the city.

Nokia Maps: Akita City Map
(The major train station isn't even marked!)

Bing Maps: Akita City Map

I'm hoping Nokia's map webpage is not the same as the what will be powering WP8's map tech..

 

[dukrem]

I am also a little worried. Nokia and bing maps work fine in Australia, in fact sometimes nokia is a little more accurate than bing when it comes to local businesses, but Nokia's aerial imaging here sucks compared to bing.

In my situation the best thing that could happen would be for Microsoft to buy nokia and integrate the best aspects of bing maps and nokia maps into one product. That way we could have bing's nice aerial images, nokia's navteq maps, a combination of the location services and Nokia's 3D maps. Unfortunately this is fairly unlikely to happen.

I just hope that Microsoft takes this all into account and arranges for it to fall back onto bing services in certain locations.

 

[ImmortalWarrior]

I imagine it will be more of a merge of the two services. Merging of the two databases of POIs and merging the best mapped areas.

Without going into the technical minutia, it can be done with comparison algorithms which highlight what areas a human should compare themselves, then manually merge the data from those areas.

Or they took the cheap route, and just went with Nokia's data only, but I doubt that.

 

[VagrantWade]

Benchmarking mobile maps – Nokia Conversations : the official Nokia blog

 

[andrelamont]

I am surprised by the visual differences as Bing Maps is supposed to be powered by Navteq. It looks like I was wrong.

Here is the list of data suppliers for bing
About Bing data suppliers

Nokia Maps suppliers
Maps - Terms of Use

 

[gzlesk]

From the map on nokias blog Japan does not support turn by turn navigation, which is very surprising because Android and even IOS do. But they could be working on it or be using some of Bings maps. And Bing maps wont go away so you can still view the arial views of locations

 

[GoodThings2Life]

It's curious, because here in the US, I've always REALLY liked Bing Maps with one issue... the whole "tap for direction" issue. If not for that, it's perfect as-is... it always gets me where I want to go, and I never care about all the frivolous stuff like 3D maps.

I only just picked up a Lumia 900 yesterday to use (replacing a dead Titan) until the Lumia 920 comes out, and so I'm still getting accustomed to Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps (I'm not even sure which one is the right/best to use).

 

[AngryNil]

It's all back-end integration. Current Bing data isn't going to disappear.