Apple released a new mapping service for its devices in September and users were thrilled with the prospect; in the beginning. Many iPhone users were in hopes that the new maps application from Nokia would provide a better user experience than those from Apple. Many early users however were not convinced that this was the case.
After the application was released early in November, it hit the chart at number 4 on the list of most downloaded applications from the Apple Store. Just the next day however, it had more than 370 reviews and had a rating of only 2.5 stars. Many users gave it only the low 1 star rating. Many complaints heard were very similar to the ones that the Apple map service endured. Consumers complained that some locations were labeled wrong and that missing information was a problem. Street maps for Japan were missing loads of information and many users felt that the maps themselves were slow to load and simply not as high quality as what they expected when the application was first released.
Of the few users that did give the map application five stars, many felt that it was a much better application than Apple Maps and that it provided more accurate location data. Some felt that although the maps were a bit better in quality than Apple Maps, the public transit data was misinforming.
Nokia provided its map application to other phones in order to collect location data and improve the mapping database. Many believe however that if consumers are not happy with the Here application, they are not likely to continue to use it in the future. Nokia stated that the application was based on internet technology and that they had hopes of improving the new application to put it on the same level as the application provided on Nokia Lumia smartphones.
