World’s largest mobile phone maker, Nokia has spent €6.5bn (£5.6bn) on map firm Navteq in 2007. But according to its latest announcement, anyone with a recently introduced GPS-enabled Nokia device – such as its X6 or 5800 can download its navigation service and maps completely free from its Ovi mobile application store.

Free maps are available on various smartphones - such as the iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia's own smartphones. But, Nokia becomes the first mobile phone maker to offer turn-by-turn voice navigation, which is normally a feature of dedicated GPS units such as Tom Tom and Garmin.

Anssi Vanjoki, the Executive Vice President of Nokia, said: “We want to make using your mobile for navigation as familiar as using it to send a text or take a picture. We believe that making the best maps with voice-guided navigation available for free will be the catalyst to do this. We can help you get around almost any city in the world, whether you’re on foot or driving.”

Analysts believe that Nokia’s this strategy is aligned with the trend for convergence of various digital devices into one. In the past few years we have witnessed the convergence of various digital content, such as, music, photos, video, e-mail could be stored on one device rather than a selection of separate machines and now maps can are also included in the list of ongoing trend.

Nokia’s this decision has been speculated as a move to compete against rivals, such as, Google. But Anssi Vanjoki, the Executive Vice President of Nokia denied such speculations by saying:

"It is a very offensive move if you will," he said. "We are not talking one product for one country, we are talking map coverage in 183 countries, launching simultaneously globally in 76 countries with 46 languages and with millions of devices already out there, plus with all of our new products being equipped with this. So it does not sound too much like defence to me."