Ovi (Nokia)
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Ovi is the name for Nokia's "umbrella concept" Internet services. Centered on ovi.com, it will market as "personal dashboard" where users can share photos with friends, buy music and access third-party services like Yahoo's Flickr photo site. It has some significance in that Nokia is moving deeper into the world of Internet services, where head-on competition with Microsoft, Google and Apple is inevitable.[1]
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[edit] History
It was announced on August 29th 2007 at the Go Play event in London. The word "ovi" means door in Finnish. The Ovi brand and identity work (including the Ovi logo) was created by a London and Tokyo based branding agency Moving Brands. On December 4, a more ambitious plan was announced with more details about when public beta desktop software will be offered. As soon as ongoing internal tests are completed, the public beta will be released in early 2008.[2][3] [4]. [1]
[edit] Services
The services offered through Ovi were announced in December 2007 and the beta version of desktop software is to be released in 2007. More services are expected to be added in 2008 and beyond.
[edit] Nokia Music Store
As part of the online services Nokia plans to offer, Nokia music store allows purchasing of music directly on a mobile device or via PC. The tariffs are 1 euro per track and from 10 euro per album.
[edit] Nokia Maps
This service is planned to be offered under the Ovi brand starting fall 2007. The same functionalities will be available, users being able to download maps via phone or PC.
[edit] N-Gage
The N-Gage platform has been integrated into the Nokia N73, Nokia N78, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8GB, Nokia N82, Nokia N93, Nokia N93i, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N96 and Nokia 5320 mobile phones. Early in 2008[5][6], an updated version of the mobile gaming platform (including it's online component - the N-Gage Arena) is going live, according to Nokia. The service worked in the past only with Nokia's N-Gage mobile game consoles, but the company said it will soon work with other devices too.[1]
[edit] Challenges
Nokia will need to raise Ovi's brand awareness, to keep up with Google and Facebook, in these social networking services. A major technological challenge ahead of Nokia's Ovi and its competition alike is how to synergize Fixed Mobile Convergence techology in the gradually converging world of PC-based Internet and mobile web.
Besides, global handsets are estimated at 3 billion as of 2007, whereas the advanced multimedia phones still stand at 300 million. More Internet-enabled handsets will need to be around sooner or later, if Nokia's Ovi is to take off.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Nokia Lays Plan for More Internet Services. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Brand New: The Wave of the Future
- ^ Identityworks: Reviews - 2007 - Nokia Siemens
- ^ N-Gage FAQ. Nokia. Retrieved on 2007-12-26.
- ^ New Update for N-Gage First Access. N-Gage Blog. Retrieved on 2007-12-26.
