Is Ovi Maps going to wipe the floor with TomTom?

The new Ovi Maps, that now comes with free walk and drive directions for most of the planet, has been downloaded 1.4 million times in just a week. Here’s the press release.

A week. Wow!

“We’re averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia. “When we announced free walk & drive navigation we knew it would be a game-changer. The number of people now using their Nokia for navigation, and as a result looking for more location-aware software, is growing faster than even we predicted.

This is terrific news for Nokia — but also for third-party developers considering getting stuck into the Apps-For-Maps opportunities on the Ovi Maps platform. Speaking of which, here’s Rafe discussing that very subject just after the launch event last week:

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Here in the States quite a few people I’ve been meeting have commented (without prompting) that they’ll ‘be getting a Nokia for the car’ because of the free navigation. And that’s from a country that isn’t that aware of the Nokia brand.

I haven’t yet downloaded Ovi Maps for my N86 yet, I understand support will be made available for that shortly.

Meanwhile here’s the current list of compatible Nokia devices: Nokia 97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia E52, Nokia E55, Nokia E72, Nokia 5230, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6730 classic and Nokia X6.

For the latest device list and to download, the link you need is: http://www.nokia.com/maps.