Nokia launches HERE Venue indoor maps in India: Report

Nokia has launched a new venue mapping facility in India for over 20 cities that include Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore among others. The facility is launched under the existing Nokia mapping service called HERE. It enables users to browse maps and location data for the inside floor plan of buildings. The service has been launched for shopping malls to start with. So, the next time you are looking for a particular store inside a mall or the location of the elevator, HERE Venue might just be able to help you.

The Hindu reported that the HERE Venue services will be available only on the Nokia Lumia and Asha range of smartphones. Though HERE maps are available as an application on other Windows Phone 8, as well as iOS devices, the venue mapping service won't be available on non-Nokia devices.

The Nokia website lays down the following instructions for accessing location based maps - "If indoor map of the venue is available, you can view it by tapping the grey building icon. To select the floor in the building, tap the floor icon in the map view. To view the details of a place inside the building, tap the desired place in the indoor map. To return back to the normal map view, tap the map area outside the building."

Nokia had introduced indoor mapping facility with the Destination Maps on Nokia maps. Later when maps were rechristened HERE, indoor mapping was kept as an important aspect.

While there are other competing services such as Google Indoor maps, it is important to note that the Google's indoor mapping services are not available in India as of now. Other indoor mapping solutions that exist in India happen to be that of Nokia owned NAVTEQ. Maybe Nokia has plans to integrate NAVTEQ's data into the new service.

Other offerings under the HERE umbrella of solutions are HERE Maps, HERE Drive(+), HERE Transit and HERE City Lens.