Ordnance Survey’s first official mapping app is proving popular with nearly 40,000 downloads in the first two weeks. The app includes free overview mapping with the option of purchasing more detailed 1:25 000 and 1:50 000 mapping in small easily accessible 100km 2 tiles. For the first time, mapping will be updated for free for the lifetime of the app, meaning users will always be able to access the most up-to-date mapping on their mobile devices.
Since its launch on 10 January 2013, almost 12,000 100km 2 tiles have been downloaded with the most popular tiles being of London, the Peak District and Lake District. Tiles of OS Explorer mapping at 1:25 000 have proved more popular with six out of the top ten maps downloaded buying the scale which is ideal for walking and exploring as it shows pathways, bridleways and other public rights of way.
OS MapFinder Commercial Manager Alastair Tinker said:
‘We are delighted with the initial enthusiasm we’ve seen and clearly people have been waiting for a long time to be able to access the official Ordnance Survey mapping on mobile devices. Our mapping has long been recognised for being the most accurate and up-to-date and now users are able to download our mapping and have it updated for free.”
‘Doing this should give customers the comfort that they will have the most up to date mapping available both at the time of purchase and for the life of OS MapFinder. The other benefit of OS MapFinder is that the mapping is cached on the device meaning there is no need to rely on signals or WiFi connection.
‘We know that people using paper maps don’t often check to make sure they have the most up-to-date version. This can lead to problems especially if the area has undergone significant change. However, the app will send updated files of the tiles purchased meaning it’s much less likely to cause problems in the future.”
Ordnance Survey collects and maintains the authoritative mapping for Great Britain and the accuracy is among the best around due to a team of 250 surveyors and 2 aircraft making over 10 000 changes every day. With 220 years of experience of mapping the country, the new OS MapFinder app is another exciting chapter in the organisation’s history.
There is no additional cost of providing updates to tiles which have already been purchased using the Ordnance Survey app. And once purchased, users can download tiles to every device registered to their iTunes account.
