On Thursday, I attended the first major event that Nokia Ireland has held around Ovi, its answer (of sorts) to the iPhone's App Store. You can see the news piece I did in tomorrow's paper. But this is a blog interview I did with Nokia Ireland's product manager, Eoin Cruise.
Ovi has come in for a lot of flak. Most is due to confusion over what Ovi is and also the (inevitable) usability comparisons with the iPhone. In fact, Ovi (which means "door" in Finnish) is supposed to be more than just Nokia's app store. It's supposed to be the entire portfolio of internet services, including a music store and an email service.
Nokia has an uphill struggle in establishing this in the consumption pattern of its users. What Apple (and, now, Android) offers is simple and effective. By comparison, what Nokia is trying to manufacture is a wider service that is capable of being run on over 40 of the 73 handsets it has in the Irish market. That's a lot of customisation and differing technical standards. In fairness to Nokia Ireland, it is doing its level best to try and get local developers interested. However, it is likely to remain an uphill struggle.
Comments