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Once Pro-Microsoft, Here Maps Drops Support For Windows 10, Windows Phone (here.com)
An anonymous reader points us to a blog post at Here website: Here Maps has announced that it will be pulling its mapping and navigation service from the Windows 10 store on March 29, 2016. The parent company, Here, also announced that it will limit the development of the apps for Windows Phone 8 to critical bug fixes. In a blog post, the company wrote, "We've been developing mobile maps applications for about 10 years, since the first smartphones came with GPS. As the market evolves, we keep in step by introducing our apps for new operating systems while stopping support for others. Back in 2014, Here was one of the few divisions at Nokia that Microsoft hadn't acquired in its multi-billion dollar deal. Since then, the mapping and navigation service has been aggressively expanding. Once exclusively available to Nokia and Microsoft-centric platforms, Here Maps is now available for Samsung's smartwatch, Android as well as iOS. "You cannot be delusional about this one. HERE Is a huge loss for the Windows Phone community," tweeted long-time Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott.
i know people who bought a nokia phone just for here maps. it was cheaper than buying a device from garmin or tomtom. this is a proper blow for the platform.
Windows Phone has it's own (robust) built in mapping system. Not sure why somebody would want a third party map service. Been using Windows Phone forever, and never heard of this company before.
I don't respond to AC's.
Unless Microsoft comes with a deal with Here Maps, most consumers will shun Windows Phone.The major option available seems to be Bing Maps; is that good enough?
Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
They see the writing on the wall with how god-awful W10 is, how awful the store is, and how awful MS's policies around the store are.
Period.
to go. I have never even seen one. Elusive. Unicorns I see. Chicks. You know. They are into unicorns. And I think you know why.
Paul Thurrott is normally delusional when it comes to Microsoft, so telling other people they can't be delusional is rich.
nt
HERE maps worked, but it smoked the battery exceptionally quickly. I have the new Lumia 950XL phone, the Microsoft 'maps' program works just fine. I really see no difference except the battery lasts way longer. Also that HERE maps app wanted us to set up a Nokia user name and password to even use the program. F--- that noise! Good riddance!
I have a Windows 8.1 tablet and would really like to get HERE maps for it, as I hear it has good offline use support. I want something I can use to view maps when I'm pulled over on the road and have no data access. I can't locate an alternate download source for it. It got pulled from the Windows Store before I got the tablet. The Bing maps for Windows 10 has offline saving capability, but the Maps for Windows 8 does not have this feature.
When I got my Win 8 mobile Here was really good, but it has not really changed much since then. The Win 10 Bing one does have a couple of issues but the route and navigation part seems better. For one it plots multiple routes which I don't think Here did. It all sounds like a last cry as they know there app has been replaced and no longer needed.
FTFA:
"In the last few months, we made the HERE apps compatible with Windows 10 by using a workaround that will no longer be effective after June 30, 2016. To continue offering the HERE apps for Windows 10 would require us to redevelop the apps from the ground up, a scenario that led to the business decision to remove our apps from the Windows 10 store."
I wonder what changes on that date that forces a ground up rewrite?
HERE seems like a silly name as I am already HERE. I want to go THERE!
The built-in Map apps works perfectly fine for me on my Windows phone with Win10, especially since it can be used Offline.
HERE maps is one of the main reasons I kept Win phone. Works great AND allows you to load international maps in advance... eliminates the need for download on roaming data.
The mapping leading me down the garden path or even trying to kill me is one of the many things that turned me off nokia phones for good*. N'mind how the maps cache (no 3g sim, had to pre-load via wifi) was plain unreliable, how the mapping would randomly wedge the phone, and how, even standing in an open field, it would be unable to (re)gain a gps lock. But boy could it complain about how gps was unreliable indoors. That message repeated every few minuts was quite unnecessary, since the device and the software was unreliable everywhere.
Even so, it's a pity, really. I used to work at the company before they were called "HERE" and they did have some decent ideas and cute tools, like an X11 map with building heights, well before google maps launched. The management, though... I haven't forgiven them yet, no, probably never will. I'm certainly not the only one they tossed aside, used and broken. Which doesn't mean that them tossing windows is a bad idea, just that I think this company is far shittier than it could be, perhaps than it should be, and I know exactly who I'm blaming. I certainly don't trust their software.
* That was before elop, which would've gotten them shitlisted if they hadn't been shitcanned already.
One of my clients issued me with one of the Nokia Winphones; it's OK although the UI is less refined than an iPhone or my Android.
(To save your alarm settings you click on an icon of an old floppy disk...wtf???) my kids certainly did not find it attractive...
The integrated Edge browser sucks on most sites...and the inbuilt GPS is so poor that even though (amazingly) Waze is about the only useful app available for it, it's effectively useless.
The integration with Office, Outlook etc however is superb.
But...where are the apps? Apart from Waze virtually no apps I find useful are available.
Microsoft, why are you prepared to piss away billions on dumb projects but then not use your cash pile to go after this segment in a less half-assed way? To break the iOS / Android duopoly you need to spend big. ....
1. Google gives away Android; pay OEMs to install Winphone 10 or whatever the heck it is called these days. Better still, launch a bunch of cheapo but secure smartphones for India, China etc. and reposition Nokia as a premium brand. Bribe Bose and others to bring out high-end speakers and shit for the hipsters. Throw in a custom connector while you're at it for added "cool". But make the battery replaceable and include an SD card slot on "neckbeard" models.
2. Many of us recall the Zune and WinCE fiascos where plenty of devs got royally fucked-over. Don't give away dev kits; PAY PEOPLE CASH to take them; bonus cash when the app is published, real large cash payment if it hits the top 100.
3. Kick start the process by bribing the top 100 Android and iOS app devs to port to Winwhateverthefuckitscalledthesedays
4. Make the devices really secure and include online upgrades for life. No ifs, no buts, no exceptions. If the FBI gets tough, relocate to Ireland and save a bundle on tax like Pfizer just did.
5. With your new secure platform, give away a decent chunk of end to end encrypted storage and mail
6. Now that Goole has EOL Picasa, develop a clone, make it free, tightly couple with phone
7. Finally have an import / merge contacts tool that WORKS!
8. Bribe the crap out of the car manufacturers to provide them with in-car systems that run Winwhatsitcalled. Buy a few big OEMS who make car infotainment and control systems while you are at it.
Profit!
With worldwide market share for Windows phone dropping from 2% to 1%, year over year, this news is hardly the sort of thing your hear about an insurgent new mobile platform.
I honestly can't remember the last time I heard hopeful news about this company. Microsoft can't even put together a decent turnaround while it still dominates the desktop, and thanks to the never ending GWX fiasco, Joe Sixpack & Aunt Bea are honestly looking at alternatives. They literally believe their windows machines are infected with unremovable spyware.
What sort of "turnaround" will Microsoft manage when their financials are starting to hurt?
It's like a train that has flown off a cliff, but somehow keeps laying track in front of itself to keep from falling. How many more defeats before they fly off into the abyss?
I get that it's fun to bash Windows Phone, but this is a non-story. The mapping platform that the branded "Here Maps" app is built upon is now integrated into the OS, and so the branded version is going away. It's funny how everyone claims that Windows Phone is dead, yet you can buy one at any Walmart in the US. Market share is 2.6%, versus 13.9% for iOS. If I could build something, and sell one for every five iPhones sold, that doesn't sound so bad.
Market share data comes from wikipedia (http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp) 2015 Q2.
Windows 10 phones ship with an app called "Maps." The same mapping back-end is used by the Maps app, and the HERE app. So Windows 10 phone users aren't out of a GPS/Navigation app, just constrained to using the Maps app from Microsoft.
640YB ought to be enough for anybody.
This is a big hit that is not clearly reported, this affects not only here Maps and here Drive, but also here Traffic, their awesome public transport navigation tool. A sad day.
You no longer need the specific Here applications, the GPS/Mapping app from MS is bundled with the WIndows 10 mobile OS and uses Here's map data files, in fact the bundled app is essentially rebranded Here Maps. So why compete with yourself?
I've been using TomTom navigation apps on my iPhone 3GS and now iPhone 6+ since early June 2009. It has excellent offline maps. I've travelled large parts of the USA and Canada, Brazil, many countries in Europe, some in the Middle East and Australia and New Zealand. It has been almost 7 years of regular free map updates on the first app I bought (Europe). Good offline maps are essential if you're driving some back road trying to find the Mountain View Lodge. I've been to many places that do not have a GPS signal anywhere near.
I'm in no way affiliated with TomTom, but their map apps have been very useful and enjoyable to me on many occasions. There have been cases where I've only had a decent meal or a bed thanks to TomTom having accurate information of such in some remote location so that I knew that if I drove 60km in the right direction I would find something. It's also made me a safer driver in busy cities as I can concentrate on the road and traffic, while the phone will tell me where I need to navigate. New York, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, Berlin and many other places.
I know I sound like an add, but I'm just a very happy customer.
RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
HERE was only "pro-Microsoft" in the sense that it was part of Nokia and Nokia was sold out to MS by Elop. These days, HERE is not even part of Nokia anymore. It was sold to a consortium formed by Mercedes, Audi and BMW last year.
When was the HERE maps app exclusive to Nokia and Windows Phone? During the Apple Maps fiasco, the HERE maps app was available for iOS.
I was relatively late to iPhone. I stayed with my Nokia N95 (despite Symbian) until I misplaced it and replaced it with an iPhone 4. I have used the Nokia Maps app (which became HERE) on the N95 and the HERE app for iOS. The nice things about HERE is that it would cache maps; I frequently travel places with no (or insanely expensive (i.e., AT&T in Canada)) cellular data coverage, so map apps that need to download maps on the fly don't work for me. But I don't recall the HERE maps being any better than Google Maps' maps.
Will miss them greatly. What a blow. NOT.
FTFA: "Here was one of the few divisions at Nokia that Microsoft hadn't acquired in its multi-billion dollar deal. "
Dear Slashdot, why the "#% do you still keep peddling this bullshit about Nokia. Seriously, Microsoft bought the phones division, that's it, they didn't get Corporate, Networks, Tech or any of the patents.
Nokia is still there, very strong and along with Ericsson who also have given up their phones in the same way (albeit to Sony) are still the backbone of the mobile and core networks...those pipes you might know as the Interweb/nets-things...
Anyway, the only reason to own a Windows phone just went away...
I'm a little sad about this as HERE maps read the directions when I was driving, which was invaluable. It also ate battery power, but if you pressed 'home', locked the phone and when you got near the destination, pressed 'back' it worked really nicely. Compared to what I hear of Android Phones, it seems the value of a windows phone varies between desired usages.
Andriod:
Pros:
- Tons Of Apps
- Mass Dev Support
- Lots of Variety
- Browser better supported/Tested
Cons:
- Memory Issues/Reboot Phone
- Phone 'degrades' over time
- Support for Phone varies
- Cheap phones are less responsive
Windows:
- Awesome 1st Party Apps,
- Easy to use, well designed for base case
- Battery support
- Support is well known (basically only one vendor)
- Cheap phones are more responsive.
Cons:
- Acceptable at best big player apps (E.G. Uber)
- 1st party apps: If it isn't easy it is near impossible to do, if it's possible at all.
- Web browser poorly supported/tested
- Not an ecosystem like Apple yet not as much broad support as Android
Basically if you use your windows phone for the basics like email, calling and texting, it's great. If you want advanced features, it's only acceptable at best and a massive fail at worse.
Can anyone share their thoughts on OpenStreetMap vs HERE? I see a lot of comments about how the mobile HERE app is handy for using offline, which is what I use OsmAnd for (despite its name, OsmAnd has both Android and IOS versions). I see there are several OSM-based apps for Windows phones as well. They may become useful offline map replacements once HERE is no why.
I've used OsmAnd while hiking sections of the Appalachian trail and loaded GPX tracks of the trail and other spots of interest for offline use. I've also used OsmAnd for bicycling directions while visiting another state. Phone safely in my pack (as opposed to mounted haphazardly on the handle bars), directions through my Bluetooth earpiece (for once I was glad the earpiece didn't have a good seal but had an ear loop to compensate; it didn't drown out local noise)--it worked quite well. Lastly, and probably most relevant to others, the offline navigation has substantially improved for driving directions. It used to be really, really bad when trying to navigate while offline. There are several online navigation options and generally they've always been OK. Now even offline navigation is good enough that I've completely removed Google Maps from my phone. The only thing missing is real-time traffic. It would be no trouble to add as a layer to the map but last time I checked (not recently) there weren't freely available traffic data.
The UI and ease of downloading (or removing) maps for offline use has greatly improved for OSM, but it's still a complicated beast. So many options which are great for geeks and power users but I can definitely see the value in a well-crafted, easy to use mapping and navigation app (which is my take on HERE).
It's why I've hung on to my Symbian Nokia this long. I've been playing around with a second hand Android, and naah not yet. That and the amoled screen and battery life, and the maps downloaded over wifi.
The offline feature is the best feature of this app and should be default in all maps. You can buy a cheap droid phone and make it into a cheap gps