I knew it was too good to be true!

Per Nokia's Pre-order website for the N97, it says that it comes with "3 month maps".

This is like the Wayfinder maps fiasco that the Nokia N800/N810 users went through. You buy something expensive with GPS in it and you don't expect to only get three months of the maps use out of it before you have to shell out another $100 for another year of service.

Worse yet, the Wayfinder maps for the U.S. were "chock full of errors". I looked up three locations that I would have to navigate to: my house, my son's house and my daughter's house and there were errors on all three.

Nobody is going to pay for out-of-date and incorrect maps!

Perhaps the maps Nokia uses in Europe don't have these problems, but we U.S. users need accuracy or else we're going to be getting TomToms and Garmins instead.

That's been the case since the N95. It varies by region and model and channel (open market/retails vs. operator/carrier subsidized versions) whether the phone comes with 1, 3 or 12 months of navigation license.

Note that the maps are always free and updated from the network, but it is these turn-by-turn voice guidance, cityguides and such that are charged for with Nokia Maps:

http://europe.nokia.com/explore-services/maps/pricing-and-coverage

The N97 isn't any special in this regard, or did you expect it to be? If so, why? (Just curious.)

I kind of expected it to be like a conventional standalone GPS....you paid for it, it works. Then after a year they can charge you for map updates.

After all they don't give you 3 months to use the camera and then make you pay more to use it afterward.

I can understand "trialware" like Rhapsody or Ovi, but GPS should be "uncrippled".

The GPS is uncrippled. It will give your position any time, free of charge. A-GPS (with a relatively small data traffic fee) will help to give it faster.

The maps also do not cost anything (even downloading, if you use WLAN, or if you download them via your PC).

Anyway, the business model for Nokia Maps is different than from a dedicated GPS device (TomTom, Garmin or whatever).

I kind of expected it to be like a conventional standalone GPS....you paid for it, it works. Then after a year they can charge you for map updates.

After all they don't give you 3 months to use the camera and then make you pay more to use it afterward.

I can understand "trialware" like Rhapsody or Ovi, but GPS should be "uncrippled".

if you expected it to be like a standalone gps, buy a standalone gps. this is a smartphone with a gps chip. the gps can be used free of charge for other things than sat nav voice guidance.

if it came with 12 months free voice guidance, then you'd probably get people complaining that it's £/$100 too dear cause they don't want to use the sat nav, or want to use different sat nav software (that they'd have to buy).

nokia have done the right thing really, allowing you to pay to use nokia maps, or buy different software for your sat nav needs.