After evaluating the whole navigation industry, Nokia have now announced that Ovi Maps is now completely free, even turn by turn navigation for walking and driving. Nokia have referred to this announcement as ‘freemium’ – premium content for free.

10 recent Symbian handsets will be able to download the newest version of Ovi maps for free which offers navigation for driving and walking, which uses Navteq map data that includes pedestrian only footpaths and alleyways. The service also includes access to data from Lonely Planet, Michelin, Facebook, Time Out and wcities.

These maps are available in 74 countries and went live as of 21st January 2010 at 1030 GMT.

Maemo users (including the N900) will have to wait for this update, however it will automatically be available on all GPS-enabled Nokia phones from now on.

In the future, UK customers will also be able to get devices with pre-installed maps of the UK and Europe which allows for a full navigation experience without having to use maps over-the-air.

In addition, to lessen the impact of the map data on your storage space, Nokia has created an all-new hybrid (vector graphic based) map data format that reduces file sizes considerably.

If you fancy getting your hands on Ovi maps for free straight away, the first 10 handsets to participate instantly include the Nokia E72, E55, E52, N97 Mini, X6, 6730 Classic, 6710 Navigator, 5800 XpressMusic, 5800 Navigation Edition and the 5230.