Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, is under assault as companies like Apple challenge it in the increasingly popular smartphone market.
The Finnish device maker says it's fighting back with its own cool phones and an Internet services platform called Ovi that will allow consumers to buy digital content, such as music and videos, get maps for navigation service, and manage contacts and photo files online.
Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President, Services
(Credit: Nokia)The Ovi storefront is now up and running in eight countries: Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Spain, and the United Kingdom. And as of May it was available on an estimated 50 million Nokia devices across more than 50 Nokia phone models, including the flagship Nokia N97.
In available countries, customers can access the Ovi Store by selecting the Ovi Store icon in the "Download" folder on their device. The mobile client is available in English, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.
In May, Nokia said that AT&T plans to make Ovi Store available to its customers in the U.S. later this year. So far, it hasn't come yet.
CNET News recently sat down with Niklas Savander, Nokia's executive vice president of services, to get the latest scoop on Ovi and to hear more about Nokia's services strategy. In a candid interview, Savander shared his thoughts on everything from lessons learned from Apple to why the Ovi store still isn't available on AT&T's network.
Q: Nokia has had a services business for a long time. But with all the hype around the iPhone and Apple's App Store, you'd think that Apple was the first to have an application storefront. What do you think about that?
Savander: Actually, we had our own application store three years before Apple did. But I have to give Apple credit. They taught the industry a painful lesson. First, you need discoverability. The App Store is right there on the iPhone. It's not hidden in some menu. It's very prominent. Also the billing is done automatically through the iTunes account. Apple already knows who you are when you come to the App Store because you have to activate it through iTunes. And the third thing is that it is a very good implementation of an app store. And it works very well.
So are you saying that Nokia didn't do these things?
Savander: We were falling short on all three. Take our download service. Every carrier had one, too, and the stores and the applications were not easy to discover. It was cumbersome to register. And the implementation was limited by the device software platforms. Believe me, I've had long discussions about this with my team. It's disappointing that we needed a company external from the industry to shake us off our comfortable path. The App Store came along and we had to accelerate our own plans.
I have to admit I wasn't really sure what Ovi was when Nokia first talked about it over a year ago. It seemed a bit confusing. Can you briefly explain what it is?
Savander: There was a reason to go out with the Ovi story early, but in hindsight we probably went out too early.
Nokia has released a test version of the software development kit for its Ovi application platform.
The kit's availability was announced Thursday at the Nokia World 09 event in Stuttgart, Germany, along with the release of a new application programming interface (API) for developers who want to integrate navigation capabilities into their applications.
The Ovi software development kit, or SDK, is a Web-based toolbox for developers that lets them create Web services and applications for handsets running either of Nokia's two smartphone operating systems: Symbian and Maemo.
Developers can write applications using standard Web technologies such as CSS, HTML, and Javascript, much as they can when writing for Palm's WebOS or the Bondi widget specification.
The new Ovi Navigation Player API is designed to be used alongside the existing Ovi Maps Player API, according to a Nokia blog post, and lets applications guide users to destinations.
David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.
The Nokia Booklet 3G is a full-fledged Windows Netbook.
(Credit: Nokia)Not a week goes by without another electronics giant deciding to hop on the overcrowded Netbook bandwagon. Still, it's unusual when a phone manufacturer decides to cross over. Nokia, long rumored to be getting into 3G mini-laptops or "smartbooks," has finally announced a very real 10-inch Netbook.
Called the Booklet 3G, it has a clear design relationship with its phone line, while still being an honest-to-goodness laptop (as opposed to some sort of smartphone hybrid). Running an Atom Z530 processor instead of the more common N270, it also has:
- An HDMI port
- Wi-Fi
- 3G (obviously)
- An SD card reader
- A-GPS and maps integration
- A Webcam
- Bluetooth
- And, according to Nokia, a 12-hour battery life
The Booklet 3G also runs Windows--as to whether it's Windows 7, Nokia isn't announcing yet, but that's a pretty safe assumption with Microsoft's OS just around the bend.
The other unique feature worth discussing is the Booklet's integration with Nokia's Ovi tools, including the company's maps, music store, and cloud-based Ovi Suite. Nokia isn't revealing yet how much software it'll be adding to the Windows cocktail, but it would be a great idea to add as much of their mobility-assisting software as possible.
No price or launch date has been announced yet. Nokia plans to reveal a lot more on September 2.
Would you buy one of these?
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.
Nokia on Tuesday officially launched the Ovi Store. This is the Finnish company's answer to services like the App Store for the iPhone and the Android Market for Android smartphones. The Ovi Store allows developers to list their programs in an online catalog so users can easily download or buy them.
(Credit:
Crave Asia)
More than 50 Nokia devices are compatible with the Ovi Store and it can be accessed by visiting store.ovi.com on the browser or downloading the standalone application to your phone. We tried it on our E71 and it worked on both the browser and through the application. The first game we successfully installed did crash our phone, but we'll put that down as the fault of the app rather than the Ovi Store.
Paid applications are also available but the store started to slow down to a crawl just as we wanted to try that out. Perhaps a sign of teething problems. Nine selected countries, mostly in Europe but also including Australia and Singapore, also each have a dedicated Ovi Store that gives residents the option to pay for programs through the mobile operators aside from the standard credit card billing.
(Source: Crave Asia)
When Nokia's Ovi Store for mobile applications arrives in the U.S., carriers don't plan to offer their billing support.
(Credit: Nokia)Nokia has run into yet another potential hurdle in trying to crack the U.S. market.
The company revealed on Wednesday that its Ovi Store will not have the billing support of U.S. carriers when it launches next month, according to Reuters. Nokia's take on the modern mobile-application store will have the support of carriers in eight countries at launch, but executives had hoped to add the U.S. to that list earlier this year.
Therefore, Nokia users who want to purchase applications from the Ovi Store will have to use a credit card. That's theoretically not a big deal, assuming that Nokia plans on using a system that allows you to store payment information; typing in a 16-digit credit card number and expiration date each time you need to make a small purchase is obviously not that convenient.
The thing is, it's not clear how Nokia plans to handle payments done with a credit card. For example, Research In Motion is using PayPal for its BlackBerry App World, and Google uses Google Checkout for the Android Market.
And one of the big advantages Apple had with the App Store was a well-honed micropayment-processing system in the iTunes Store that was familiar to iPhone users. Setting up a system that can scale as demand grows is no small undertaking, and for that reason, as well as user preference, many companies offering mobile operating systems--including RIM and Microsoft--plan to enlist carrier partners to let charges for application downloads appear on their monthly bill.
Nokia has its own music store, but it's had trouble getting that off the ground in the United Kingdom as a subscription business, and it's not clear how many individual tracks have been sold. That means that the company has yet to really establish a billing relationship with its customers in Europe, let alone the United States.
And that's why carrier support was considered an important part of Ovi Store's chances. But U.S. carriers are busy chasing other alternatives, such as Apple's flirtations with AT&T and Verizon Wireless, Microsoft's plans for a Windows Marketplace for Mobile that involves the carriers, and perhaps their own stores.
With carrier support and strong recognition in Europe, Nokia has a chance to put its own stamp on the new era of mobile applications. But when it comes to figuring out how to expand across the pond, Nokia is still looking for help.
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