Glitches plague Nokia's Ovi Store launch
Nokia was forced to apologize to users Tuesday after the launch of its Ovi Store did not go as planned.
According to the statement posted on the company's Ovi Blog, the store suffered from performance issues due to a large spike in traffic. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused Ovi Store users," the statement said.
Though CNET was able to browse the Ovi Store on Tuesday evening without any issues, reports of major problems circulated earlier in the day. TechCrunch's Robin Wauters, who reported slow load times and complete outages, characterized the Ovi Store launch as an "utter disaster." Also, several users who commented on the Ovi Blog reported similar problems.
In its statement, Nokia said that it was able to make "intermittent performance improvements" after it added extra servers. The company also said users who entered through the Ovi Store device client encountered no issues.
Nokia's Ovi Store is the company's response to applications stores for the iPhone, Google Android and BlackBerry devices. It allows users to download free and paid applications for more than 50 Nokia devices.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent. 
