Nokia Ovi Store Launches

Kensai7 writes "The much-awaited Nokia Ovi Store opened for business yesterday. By following a business model similar to that of successful rival Apple for the iPhone, Nokia is trying to provide developers and customers a vast portfolio of Symbian OS applications, games, widgets, etc. TechCrunch took a look at some of the more interesting applications available at the start, but was disappointed by the launch itself. The Ovi Store team acknowledged some difficulties due to high levels of traffic."

Comments

A store for sheeple?

[TheRaven64]

Is this Ovi short for Ovine?

Re:A store for sheeple?

[harryandthehenderson]

Listen, you freak. We don't all watch Frasier, okay? Give me two mutton joints.

Ovi?

[ickleberry]

For some reason that word reminds me of 'egg', and fertility treatment.

When will people stop making these typically "2.0-sounding" made up names with too many vowels? really they should have called it Oviboma or Ovijah or something

Re:Ovi?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ovi is Finnish, it means "door".

Re:Ovi?

[harryandthehenderson]

Hahaha look at how stupid you are.

Re:Ovi?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Door Store has a better ring to it.

Too little too late

[Etylowy]

Starting this late they should offer something better than Apple's app store - they don't: a recipe for failure? Hope not.

Re:Too little too late

[sulliwan]

They do, they offer phones which are more than just fashion accessories.

Re:Too little too late

[Etylowy]

True.
But one of the reasons iphone is such a success (in terms of sales) is the app store and the bazilion apps you can get. Granted 95% of them are bloody stupid and essentialy useless, but the remaining 5% make a difference.
To sum up:

Apple:
released iphone that is considered cool enough to sell well despite being overpriced and with major flaws
started an app store first and got loads of customers (and their money)

Nokia
does not have a single phone that is considered cool by majority of people
is way behind in terms of usability
started its own app store ages after apple
it is named ovi
it does not offer anything signifficant that apple app store has

Note, I am not an apple fanboy. I do not own a single apple product. I have used iphone for a total of 2 weeks and didn't like it at all.

Re:Too little too late

[emarock]

Starting this late they should offer something better than Apple's app store - they don't: a recipe for failure? Hope not.

In about two centuries Nokia has shown to be pretty good at catching up on lucrative trends: it changed from a paper maker to cell phones and network equipment vendor, passing through the electricity business and rubber manufacturing sector. If selling applications on mobile phones will prove to be an important business even after first year's hype, I will not bet on a failure.

Re:Too little too late

[Kensai7]

I agree to most of your points, Etylowy, but hey... give Ovi some time. It has been working for less than 48 hours and its biggest moment will come when the new N97 launches next month.

The N97 is the killer phone for the killer Ovi apps. All other usability problems will fade away once the Ovi guys start listening to users' feedback, as it always happens.

Nokia is great in these small details.

Re:Too little too late

[dwater]

> I have used iphone for a total of 2 weeks and didn't like it at all.

I borrowed one for a week to see what all the fuss was about.

I turned it on and was presented with something on the screen that suggested I had to connect it to iTunes in order for it to work.

I have to have a computer in order to make it work? Seriously? Seriously? People buy this thing?

I have no computer that is running OS X or Microsoft (only linux), so it was useless and I gave it back.

Is there some way to make it work without a computer? I could borrow it again, I suppose...

Bloody Java bloody applications

[tygerstripes]

This may be an overly harsh gripe, but I find it fatuous to describe anything that's a simple Java app - especially games - as an "interesting application" for a platform-specific content store.

Anything that makes use of the unique features of the platform in a way that therefore can't be or hasn't been implemented on other platforms - fine, that's an "interesting application". That's what most people found exciting and newsworthy about the iPhone app-store, and that's what made it so typically Apple. It was platform-specific, and unavailable elsewhere.

I don't see this as a "similar business model" at all, because the principal business model behind all of Apple's innovation is this: Vendor Lock-in. The Nokia platform is as generic as possible.

Re:Bloody Java bloody applications

[ickleberry]

Still an app store is useful to have - people don't want to go through the trouble of downloading a file, opening and running an installer anymore. they want to click on a shiny shiny 2.0 button and the thing installs itself. They dont want to go to specific websites to download the app either. If there was something like this for the desktop, web applications wouldnt be so popular

Re:Bloody Java bloody applications

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux distros repositories are 'something similar' for desktop computers and I think a better model for selecting and distributing applications than browsing web sites.

That said, the interface for Apple's store beats repos and this Ovi store and everything Microsoft has tried, both for mobile devices and desktops. It does a better job of categorizing apps, explaining their features, providing screenshots, integrating user comments, etc etc. It is easy to navigate and reasonably fast, even on an Edge connection. It doesn't lose much functionality when used from an iPhone/Touch (I actually prefer the mobile versions of both the App Store and iTunes).

Re:Bloody Java bloody applications

[nabil2199]

If there was something like this for the desktop, web applications wouldnt be so popular

Do debian repos count?

Re:Bloody Java bloody applications

[Hurricane78]

Exactly. Ovi offers a directory service. That's all. And I think things like that are always useful, no matter what.

Re: Ovi is short for door

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this Ovi short for Ovine?

No, Ovi is short for door in Finnish.

Good for Apple

[Orlando]

The competition will I'm sure be good for Apple in the long run, and result in more interesting iPhone applications as a result. Cross pollination if you will.

Nokia vs Apple

[mrops]

Before I criticize the iPhone, let me say, it is an excellent web browsing device and adequate for phone calls.

Now the criticism.

As a communication device, iPhone really sucks.

Nokia
Phone calls: check
Video calls: check
Share pictures online: check
Share live video feeds to website right from phone (Qik): check
Send/Receive/Forward MMS: check/check/check
Send/Receive/Forward SMS: check/check/check
Load videos to youtube: check
Many chat applications: check
Webbrowsing: check

iPhone
Phone calls: check
Video calls: not supported
Share pictures online: not supported
Share live video feeds to website right from phone: not supported
Send/Receive/Forward MMS: not supported/not supported/not supported
Send/Receive/Forward SMS: check/check/not supported
Load videos to youtube: not supported
Many chat applications: only on jail broken iPhones
Webbrowsing: check

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[quangdog]

So, based on what you have listed, it appears that the Nokia platform is vastly superior - why is it that the first time I'm hearing about it is from a comment on a story on /.?

Nokia ought to be shouting from the tops of the trees about why their products are far superior to the competition, but all I hear are crickets chirping...Any clue as to why? Does Apple just do a better job marketing and thus enjoys a greater market share? Or is it that the somewhat limited functionality of the Apple devices appeals to people who don't want the complexity of a more capable device?

Is there some other reason?

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[piledriversamson]

Does Apple just do a better job marketing and thus enjoys a greater market share?

Apple doesn't hold a greater marketshare. Symbian OS holds almost 50% of the smartphone OS market while Apple's OS barely holds 10%. You clearly have no clue what you are talking about.

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[quangdog]

Yeah, I guess I'm just an idiot.

Oh, say, ask your non-geek friends if they would rather have an iPhone or something from Nokia that runs something called "Symbian". See how many know what Symbian actually is.

Symbian may hold almost 50% of the smartphone market, but few mainstream consumers know about it. Nearly everyone (usual disclaimers apply - folks living under rocks or in areas of sparse technology likely have not) has heard of iPhone, most know what it can do, and many want one.

Then again, I have no clue what I'm talking about.

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[Kensai7]

So, based on what you have listed, it appears that the Nokia platform is vastly superior - why is it that the first time I'm hearing about it is from a comment on a story on /.?

There have been many posts about the Symbian OS in the past here in Slashdot. Nevertheless, Symbian is much weaker in the United States than it is in Europe. Slashdot has an international audience, of course, but it mainly driven by its American contributors and readers.

I'm pretty sure most Americans hadn't even heard about FIAT before it bought Chrysler's assets, this doesn't mean FIAT didn't exist or prosper before that event.

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[Hurricane78]

Well, pretty much everyone I know owns either a Nokia, or a SonyEricsson. So there's that. I have yet so see my first iPhone user here in Cologne, Germany.
I once saw one with something that turned out to be a Samsung phone.
There simply are too many features missing in the iPhone, for it to be taken seriously here.
Also, nobody of those I asked about their phone, knew that they were running Symbian. They did not care anyway.

Oh, and I noticed that nobody has posted a link to this yet: http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone ^^

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[peppepz]

Outside America, the iPhone has been less successful than you might think.
Here in Italy, none of my friends has an iPhone, geek or not.
It's missing features that we’re used to see even on the cheapest Chinese-made phone on sale here (bluetooth, mms, video call).

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[vadim_t]

Saw a grand total of one iPhone in Spain here. The user complained that it sucks.

iPhones are being offered for free with phone plans, and it seems even that isn't helping.

My own phone runs Symbian.

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[Hurricane78]

I'm pretty sure most Americans hadn't even heard about FIAT

I'm sorry, but that argument is moot, in the face of the fact that most Americans haven't heard about anything outside their national borders. And most outside their city and TV borders. ^^

I still hope for the cool part of America to split, and leave the bible-redneck-FOX part. :)
There are so many great things an people in America, that are hold back by their false values and rules.

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[mrops]

I have a slogan for Apple devices, and I do use Apple products, but I did move from and iPhone to N95 and was more than pleasantly surprised.

What appeases people about apple is that it does two things only, but it is really user friendly at doing these two things.

N95 on the other hand has too much overwhelming functionality for Joe the plumber to handle.

That is also why iPhone has been successful.

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[StikyPad]

I gave my GF an iPhone for Christmas, as a way for me to check it out without getting stuck with it indefinitely (just like her -- hi dear!). Anyway, my existing phone is an HTC Windows Mobile smartphone, and while it has more features, I'd take the iPhone over it any day. There's simply a wide variety of easily accessible apps. None of this searching the web for hours (usually from a desktop, because it's too unweildy to use my phone for extended browsing), only to get "This program was not designed for your version of Windows Mobile". iPhone apps don't crash when I switch to landscape mode. And as a developer, I can submit my app directly to the app store instead of setting up my own shitty website and trying to drive traffic through SEO and purchases through trialware.

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[mdwh2]

Last time I looked, Nokia had vastly greater market share.

I think this comment just exemplifies how out of touch Slashdot has come when it comes to the mobile phone market. It's bad enough when I see "Hey, I can read a webpage on an Iphone, no one did that before!", but it's interesting and worrying to see the belief that Apple are the dominant player in the market. I like to think I come to Slashdot to learn about geek news, but this demonstrates a problem when the continual stream of Iphone stories on Slashdot, with hardly any coverage of the bigger players, gives people the misperception that Apple are dominant.

Nokia do shout about it. It's just that the stories never get on Slashdot, because of all the Iphone hype.

As to your later comment:

Symbian may hold almost 50% of the smartphone market, but few mainstream consumers know about it.

They don't know about Symbian because they don't give a crap about the OS. But everyone knows about Nokia. Whilst plenty of people know about Apple, that would primarily be as a computer company. I bet far more people think of Nokia as a phone company, than they think of Apple as a phone company.

Re:Nokia vs Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/02/14/google_iphone_usage_shocks_search_giant.html

Technical superiority is irrelevant if no one uses your product or wants it.

It's like the New Yorker. This months cover was drawn on an iPhone. You can rave all you want about how drawing apps exist on other platforms, and how they are superior, but no one cares. They want to draw stuff on an iPhone.

Apple has already won. Get used to it.

Qt support for Symbian/S60

[Kensai7]

One major boost for Ovi applications development is the coming Qt support for Symbian/S60 porting.

Old Symbian C++ programming was a real pain, now porting desktop or mobile applications, games, widgets, etc across a range of different devices should be really easy. I see many productivity advantages for the developers who opt for Symbian/Ovi, something Apple won't have for its iPhone.

Re:Qt support for Symbian/S60

[Hurricane78]

I wonder if they fixed the horrible threading model in Symbian.

Qt for Symbian would be really cool. I think in the long run, Symbian's core will be replaced by some lightweight variant of Linux.

Re:Qt support for Symbian/S60

[Kensai7]

I think in the long run, Symbian's core will be replaced by some lightweight variant of Linux.

Yep, that's the plan! At least this is what they have said so far.

Re:Qt support for Symbian/S60

[dwater]

> I wonder if they fixed the horrible threading model in Symbian.

Can you give more details? What's so horrible about it?

Re: Ovi is short for door

[dwater]

I think it is also long for door in Finnish.

Over priced?

[Anonymous Coward]

They released a phone at first that was quite cheap with upfront costs and had an immediate tie in with a large telco provider that offered good phone service plus a unique browsing experience, with the touch screen interface. It was cheap for what it could do. I don't own one, but have checked them out, and watched someone who was good at using that interface, and they seem quite usable. I have looked at browsers on other phones and they are lacking. With that said, the points made about the Nokia high end phones are valid as well. In other words, no one phone or platform has quite hit the ultimate cool and functional level yet.

ARGH, Epic. Fail.

[SpooForBrains]

I have a Nokia E71, so I thought I'd give this a go.

Here's the process I went through.

1. Visit the Ovi store
2. Register, giving my number
3. Wait for SMS to arrive, click on embedded link, which opens in the phone's web browser to confirm registration.
4. Find an app I like the look of on Ovi store on my PC (Nokia Magnifyer, silly, small, free. Ideal first test)
5. Click on Nokia magnifyer
6. Click on Send to phone, confirm phone number, wait for SMS to arrive
7. Open SMS, click on embedded link
8. Wait for web browser to load the page
9. Page shows overview of the app, with a "Download" button
10. Enter user information to log in (and the page is FUGLY)
11. Now logged in, same overview page is displayed. Click on the "Download" button AGAIN.
12. Confirm download.
13. Here begins the standard application installation procedure, which involves something in the region of ten separate button presses.
14. Browse to "Installation" folder, and launch Nokia Magnifyer.

Jesus H Christ, they think this is going to compete with the App store?

Re:ARGH, Epic. Fail.

[Hurricane78]

Yeah. There are some really unnecessary missing shortcuts in this thing.
After point 5, they should simply have linked to the jad file, and be done. They obviously had a session ID, associated with a phone number, at that point.
But let's see how they look in one month.

Re:ARGH, Epic. Fail.

[SpooForBrains]

It gets even better!

The Ovi store webpage, when accessed from the phone, doesn't remember your username and password, so you have to enter it every time.

To download the Ovi Store itself to the phone requires going through steps 8 through 14 above, for a 3.5MB download (pretty large, in mobile app terms). Oh, and a reboot (first Symbian app I have encountered that has required a reboot after installation). Then, when installed, takes well over 20 seconds just to load the initial interface and, from that point on, the entire interface appears to be streamed from the online store. It's almost unusably slow on a 3G connection while I'm standing still, I can't imagine how useless it'd be on, say, a train, and those poor souls stuck on GPRS/Edge might as well not bother.

I hate this phone. I really really hate this bloody phone.

Re:ARGH, Epic. Fail.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you now realize the need for open software and hardware?

Re:ARGH, Epic. Fail.

[jo42]

And this, people of the world, is why Apple is doing so well with the iPhone.

Re:ARGH, Epic. Fail.

[SpooForBrains]

Recommend me a decent open smartphone, and I'll be right there. When it comes to smartphones, the E71 is the best of a very, very bad bunch.

Re:ARGH, Epic. Fail.

[Colin Smith]

Jesus H Christ, they think this is going to compete with the App store?

Maybe it's only version 1.0. How long have Apple had to refine their site? 5 years with iTunes? Nokia are starting largely from scratch.

Still, the more you bitch, the faster they'll fix it.... http://www.ovi.com/services/support
 

Re:ARGH, Epic. Fail.

[glebd]

From scratch?! You must be kidding me. How old is Symbian OS (and let's not count the EPOC years)? The first commercial phone, 7650, was released in 2002. All this time their PC Suite used to install software was a royal pain to use (and unspeakably evil to program for). It took Apple and iPhone + iTunes for Nokia to get off their asses and do something vaguely similar. Let's see how long it takes them to make it usable.

Re:ARGH, Epic. Fail.

[dwater]

> Jesus H Christ, they think this is going to compete with the App store?

My first thought when I read this was along the lines of, "Of course not" since how can they compete since they sell things for different platforms?

Then I figured they actually compete for developers, which is a more valid point, I suppose; since the buying experience more than likely directly effects the sales, which is important to developers; but then so is the number of customers where S60 has the advantage.

Re:ARGH, Epic. Fail.

[keot]

I also have a Nokia E71 and this is the process I went through:-

1. Open the 'Store' application in the Installations folder.
2. Confirm that I wish to use my packet data connection instead of WiFi.
3. Click 'search recommended'.
4. Click the search text field and enter 'magnifier' then click the search button.
5. Click the 'Nokia Magnifier' entry that comes up.
6. Click 'download'.
7. Wait for it to install - no user-interaction needed.
8. Click 'launch'.

Fairly easy, but not as swish as the App Store on the iPhone.

Re: Ovi is short for door

[LiquidCoooled]

yes, ovi is short for door.

i got a little too close to one recently.

http://slashdot.org/~LiquidCoooled/journal/229097

Nokia Symbian, not Symbian on other devices?

[jackflap]

I take it this is for Symbian on Nokia devices, not Symbian on other devices (i.e. Samsung). Hm?

Re:Nokia Symbian, not Symbian on other devices?

[kolicha]

Looking at mobile9.com for the Samsung G810 it links to the Symbian S60 3rd Edition Software category. Assuming they are correct, then it's possible they will work for your phone e.g. the nokia n76 is an S60 3rd Edition 240x320 device: http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/N76 so therefore the apps they have down for that phone could work on the Samsung G810. No promises though.

Who *actually* uses those features?

[Nicolas MONNET]

Phone calls: everyone
Video calls: nobody (seriously, who wants to have a conversation while holding his phone at arms' length? ok you want to do it once and that's it)
Share pictures online: some people
Share live video feeds to website right from phone (Qik):
Send/Receive/Forward MMS: can't get the damn thing to work most of the time (and I'm a fucking sysadmin), and most of my intended recipients can't either
Send/Receive/Forward SMS: everyone uses that
Load videos to youtube: could be useful
Many chat applications: very useful indeed
Webbrowsing: everyone who buys a smartphone

Fact is, web browsing on the iPhone is great. On every Nokia device I've seen it sucks. Maybe they have a new version of their web browser ... but who cares? they won't provide upgrades if you have an "ancient" model from 6 months ago!

I'm no iPhone fanboy, I don't have one and I'm probably not going to get one because I'm Linux-only. I'm going to get an Android device. But those features you list, with few exceptions, are *gadgets*. About as useful as Zune's squirting, because the implementation sucks. It's not necessarily the developer's fault. MMS fails because operators suck. Email does the job *much* better, and it works, even with spam and shit.

Apple decided to ditch useless crap and focused on implementing the core features superbly. Nokia (and Microsoft) chose to check as many boxes as they could while delivering buggy, unusable crapware.

Re:Who *actually* uses those features?

[dwater]

> Maybe they have a new version of their web browser ... but who cares? they won't provide upgrades if you have an "ancient" model from 6 months ago!

[0]

Who cares? Use one of the several third party ones[1] that's available. Try that on the iPhone...it's far from certain to me that Apple will allow you to install another web browser on *their* phone. If you like they way they do it, then great, but if you don't, you're (from what I've been told) screwed - because Apple think they know better than you do.

With Nokia phones, you can install whatever you want. "Jail break"...what's that?

[0] You're exaggerating. They just pick where to spend their effort. I just upgraded the firmware on my E90 about a month ago, and the E90 is year's old.
[1] http://get.skyfire.com/ for example. I just loaded that on my E90.

Re:Who *actually* uses those features?

[dwater]

> and the E90 is year's old.

^year's^years'

Re:Who *actually* uses those features?

[mdwh2]

If you're going to play the "who uses those features" card, that equally applies to whatever features that the Iphone's web browser has over Nokia's web browser. Could it possibly be that you're just assuming that everyone else's preferences and needs are identical to yours? They're not.

For most people, a bog standard phone that runs Opera Mini, takes pics, plays a few mp3s - and does MMS - is more than enough for what they need.

Apple decided to ditch useless crap and focused on implementing the core features superbly.

If you don't care about extensive features, then why spend the money on a high end phone? Also, objective examples to support your claim of "superbly", please.

MMS fails because operators suck. Email does the job *much* better, and it works, even with spam and shit.

Now who's bringing up feature lists? Email doesn't work if your recipient has a phone that doesn't support email attachments. It might be better, but that's irrelevant since you can only control what phone you have, no what your recipient has. I don't want to try to send a picture, and then have to go "Oh sorry, I can't do that - I'm an Apple user". I expect my phone to Just Work.

And just about everyone else out there, even computer incompetents, seem to be enjoying MMS, so I find it worrying if you can't manage it...

pretty rough experience

[mistahkurtz]

a description of my attempt to use the site (and i'm sad i can't, thus far):


register, receive sms with link, click on link, validate my cell#.

check email, notice that i have a welcome email, followed immediately by a "we're sorry to see you go and your account is closed" email.

validate email address

try to finish registration, no luck, my cell# already has an account tied to it.

try to reinstate account following directions (or lack of) in the goodbye email, no luck.

try to sign in (having validated my cell# and email address), no luck.


that's too bad, really, i was really excited about grabbing some legit, trustworthy apps for my n82. maybe i'll try it again in a couple of months...

(also worth noting, their layout isn't that great. the website would often forget the format that i was browsing apps in, ie list vs thumbnail view)

Re:pretty rough experience

[mistahkurtz]

update: when trying to retrieve my "forgotten" user name, it tells me there isn't an account associated with either my email address or cell phone number.

has anyone else had similar issues?

i'm wondering if the complexity of the registration process, or their unexpected popularity is breaking user signup?

Re: Ovi is short for door

[Anonymous Coward]

'Ovi' means 'door' in Finnish. It's a direct translation.

Re:Nokia vs Apple (no A2DP till summer?!)

[operator_error]

You forgot to mention Nokia's support for A2DP Bluetooth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_profile#Advanced_Audio_Distribution_Profile_.28A2DP.29

Oh, I see in the bullets that links to, Apple's iPhone will begin to support it this coming summer.

Folks, lemme tell you how much I enjoy my Nokia bh-503 wireless behind the head headphones! Like how cool is it when I receive a VOIP call over SIP on the N95, while I'm listening to Mp3s on my racing-bicycle while the volume cuts softly either forthe SIP calls (or sat-nav verbal instructions)?

Re:Nokia vs Apple (no A2DP till summer?!)

[operator_error]

Forgot to mention a critical piece of gear: a $20 holder for an AA size battery (rechargeable or dispoable), also a Nokia part, but I've seen 3rd party ones too. This provides effective hot-swappable power for the N95.

The new N79 replaces the need for a Polar heart meter also, while the SportsTracker GPS/app is really, really fun and runs on many models! SportsTracker even geo-tags images or videos shot along the way, and has its own social network features. You can view videos online, pegged to a Google map, share, see your monthly mileage, etc.

The headphones run for something like 12 hours on a single charge, so just the AAs for the phone are req'd. I really like these headphones, and thought the free wired ones that came with the N95 sucked, because after 6 months and results from a google search, I realized the tiny required battery was dead and req'd either tools I didn't have or regular service. All I needed to know to justify the BH-503 purchase.

Great!

[Colin Smith]

Now you can have your desktop on your 1x2 mobile phone screen!

Re:ARGH, Epic. Fail. - 5 steps to download an app

[AboveTheFray]

5 simple sets from opening store to installed an app from my N95.

1) Launch Ovi Store
2) find an app
3) click on it
4) click on download (if you have already entered your username, then you don't need to do so again)
5) installation happens without a prompt.

What of these 5 steps does Apple not do?

Asia?

[Tarmas]

You forgot Asia, a bigger Symbian market than both the US and Europe combined. So yeah, your argument is moot, as Hurricane78 put it.