14 DAY TRIAL // When Microsoft and Nokia announced that they signed an agreement and that the latter will adopt the Windows Phone platform for new smartphones, we learned that leading services from the Finnish handset vendor will be available for the entire all Windows Phone users out there, Nokia Maps included.
This did not change in the meantime, but it seems that those who do not have a Nokia Windows Phone in their hands will have to pay for the service.
Nokia's Lumia handsets will provide their users with unrestricted access to Nokia Maps, but others will need to purchase subscriptions of some sort for accessing it.
Today, Nokia unveiled its Lumia phones on the market in India, and the company confirmed during a press event that Nokia Maps will be a paid service for users of devices from other manufacturers.
According to a recent article on PCWorld.in, the Nokia Maps service that Symbian users already benefit from will be split in two on Windows Phone, namely in Maps and Drive.
Previously, Nokia said that Drive, which is the actual navigation service from the company, will be available only for its own Windows Phone devices, and chances are that this is the service that will be pushed on handsets from other makers as a paid product.
Nokia's Maps service is one of the best mapping solution in the world, and Windows Phone adopters will certainly have a lot to gain by using it.
However, the availability of this service for free only on Nokia's devices is meant to result in a higher appeal of these handsets, while doing less good to the Windows Phone platform as a whole.
We already saw the app being hacked and loaded on Windows Phone devices from Samsung and HTC, but Nokia did not make it available for these devices as of yet, though it might do so soon. Stay tuned for more on this.