Nokia opened up its HERE mapping services to third party developers — meaning they can integrate the technology into their own apps — as it continues to drive use of the technology.

The developer portal includes a menu of location services, available via APIs and various other tools offered in the form of different subscription packages. The technology could potentially be used in both consumer and enterprise applications.

There is a free 90-day trial to use the service, while developers of low-volume consumer applications will be able to sign up to a free plan beyond this timeframe.

Nokia said that the introduction of this ‘self-service access’ lowers the barriers for developers to provide location and mapping functionality within apps.

In October, Nokia launched a beta of the HERE app for all Android devices, after previously only making it available for users of Samsung devices. An iOS version of HERE is yet to materialise, despite reports in September that it was imminent.

HERE is able to offer more advanced offline navigation capabilities than many rival products, by using maps that are downloaded and stored on the device.

Now that Nokia’s HERE mapping business no longer needs to primarily support the company’s struggling handset business, which has been sold to Microsoft, it can make its mapping technology available to a wider range of consumers.

Nokia also recently struck a deal with Samsung to bring its mapping technology to Tizen, the open source operating system being backed by the South Korean giant.