This week, Nokia announced that a new version of their navigation application was available. There is one awesome catch, all the premium content is free! Before you had to pay for the voice turn-by-turn, city guides, and traffic reports. Ovi Maps is a pretty solid navigation application, and as far as I know it is the only one you can use while not being online. You can download maps to your phone so you don’t need to stream them. You can watch this fancy video from Nokia to see an overview of all the major features including sharing location with Facebook, nearby event, and more.

This is cool and all (for people with Nokia phones), but I think this is the start of something big. It is a huge step for the company and the mobile industry but this is the second company to make their navigation application free. Technically third because Sprint waves the $10 a month navigation fee if you own a Pre (maybe a Pixi also). Google was the first major one to do this with the release of the Motorola Droid and later the Nexus One. It came with Google Navigation which for a first release, is very impressive. With Android’s market share rising fast and Nokia’s at around 50%, will this force other phones to follow this free navigation trend? Will the next iPhone have their own free “iNavigate” application?

Another major thing to think about is what are the dedicated GPS companies like TomTom and Garmin going to do? With Nokia alone having 83 million GPS-enabled phones, do these companies stand a chance? Especially if you consider the cost for a decent GPS unit is maybe $200-$300, and under a 2 year contract you can pick up a Droid or Nexus One for under $200. The phones would also be better for navigation because they have a data connection to get updated maps, newer restaurants, and many other features. I personally find it hard to believe that someone will look at a TomTom and think that it is a good deal with all these cheaper options.

The simple question is, did Google and Nokia change the game?

On a funny note, I think Hitler has even got upset over this situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRbCoh66yuU