T-Mobile Germany freaks out, pulls Ovi-capable Nokia phones? Not so much
Reports out of Germany suggest that T-Mobile's German network has pulled all handsets capable of accessing Nokia's all-encompassing media playground, Ovi, over concerns that the service will interfere with programs T-Mobile is planning on launching itself. It's long been suspected that carriers would frown on Ovi, fearing that it'll cannibalize profits from carriers' own offerings -- but shows of support from Vodafone, TIM, and others have more recently seemed to give the whole scheme an overwhelming vote of confidence. A quick scan of T-Mobile Germany's online store reveals that the N73 and N95 are still holding it down, but yeah, that's about it as far as Nseries fare goes -- and Nokia made a point of mentioning today that its new 6650 has specific support for T-Mobile's own services. Hopefully they'll be able to get this whole spat resolved sooner rather than later, possibly by taking the Vodafone route and bundling Ovi side by side with the carrier's branded services, because we're pretty sure no carrier -- particularly a European one -- wants to go very long without offering Nokia's mainstream stuff.
[Thanks, Khattab]
Update: We've received an official statement from T-Mobile International on the matter, and in short, Ovi handsets weren't pulled because they weren't being offered to begin with. T-Mobile and Nokia are working together to figure out exactly how their respective services will be offered in the future, but yeah, we're not so worried that this is the death of Nokia on T-Mobile's German network. See the full statement after the break.
"It is not true that T-Mobile removed Nokia handsets from its range of products. There is no change since Q42007. Both partners worked well together in offering the T-Mobile exclusive Nokia 6650. This shows their focus to further advance the mobile Internet. T-Mobile has currently no OVI handsets in its portfolio. We are in discussions with Nokia about this topic and are confident to find a common path in the near future."
