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:Ovi?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ovi is Finnish, it means "door".

Re: Ovi is short for door

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this Ovi short for Ovine?

No, Ovi is short for door in Finnish.

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

[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).

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: Ovi is short for door

[dwater]

I think it is also long for door in Finnish.

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: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.