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Amidst iOS 6 furore, Nokia claims Maps win for Lumia 920 over iPhone 5 & Samsung Galaxy S3

by Angela Moscaritolo, 24 Sep, 2012 News
Amidst iOS 6 furore, Nokia claims Maps win for Lumia 920 over iPhone 5 & Samsung Galaxy S3

Not everyone is aggravated about Apple's new Maps app in iOS 6. Rival phone maker Nokia is taking advantage of the growing criticism over Apple's sometimes inaccurate mapping solution to promote the strengths of its own suite of location and mapping apps.

On its Conversations blog, Nokia benchmarks the mapping software in its own Lumia 920 against the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Apple's iPhone 5, highlighting Apple's lack of public transportation information and offline support. In the infographic below, Nokia also notes that its voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation is available in more than 110 countries, compared to just 56 with Apple's mapping software.

"We truly understand that maps and location-based apps must be accurate, provide the best quality and be accessible basically anywhere," Pino Bonetti, senior marketing communications manager at Nokia, wrote in the post. "That's been standard practice at Nokia for the past six years, and we also understand that 'pretty' isn't enough. You expect excellence in your smartphone mapping experience."

Apple's new iOS 6 Maps app has come under fire for being riddled with errors and omissions like missing cities, mislabelled landmarks, and more. Amidst the backlash, Apple has defended the effort as a work in progress.

In a veiled shot at Apple, Nokia's Bonetti argues in the blog post that a good mapping experience "cannot be built overnight."

"Our superior apps are built on the most accurate, automotive-grade Navteq maps, meticulously developed by over 20 years of know-how," he said.

When it comes to maps, Nokia does have some bragging rights. The company's location and mapping technology is currently being used by Yahoo and Amazon, and will also power the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem.

Jamie Lendino is one of the analysts who was impressed by Nokia's cartographic offering after getting some hands-on time with the Lumia 920 earlier this month, saying it one-upped even Google's vaunted portable mapping application.

For more on Apple's latest mobile operating system, check out Jeffrey L Wilson's iOS 6 review.

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