Nokia Ovi Store unveiled, launches in May

Nokia's just announced at its Mobile World Congress presentation that, lo and behold, the company's launching its own online app and media portal, the Ovi Store. Download, Mosh, widgets are going to be focuses of the Ovi Store. The N97 will be the first device to be "pre-integrated" with Ovi Store, but "tons" of existing S40 and S60 customers will be able to download the service starting in May. The company says it'll learn your tastes over time and anticipate what you want, as well as make recommendations based on your geographical location. A developer site has launched, and is touting a 70% revenue share, which appears to match what Apple's doing with its respective app store.

[Al @ Feb 16th 2009 4:46AM]

Not sure I like a location aware store.

[Saad Rabia @ Feb 16th 2009 4:58AM]

Will people please stop all this "location aware" phobia forever?!

Face it, in a couple of years even your toaster will have built in location chip! get used to it or die complaining.

[Aaron @ Feb 16th 2009 5:01AM]

Any online store knows your location already from your IP and, if you buy something, your credit card details.

[Zenguppy34 @ Feb 16th 2009 1:28PM]

you don't think iTunes is location aware?

[thef1re @ Feb 16th 2009 4:50AM]

finally nokia finally catches up with an app store. the symbian OS has been open for a long time to games, applications etc... but it seemed only those "in the know" were able to install them.

good move on copying apple's approach by creating a "app store" for the mainstream! at long last!

[Renegade Fanboy @ Feb 16th 2009 6:20AM]

I like how they went 2 steps further: not just the apps, but all kinds of media also, directly to your phone and then adding location-based and social element. The latter of course is known from Amazon, but integrating everything into one store is quite good.

Finally they are not just following but starting to show some innovative steps. (Even if not revolutionary ;-)

[Boards of Canada @ Feb 16th 2009 4:53AM]

Its not about "me too" anymore, its more because it would be suicidal to not do so sooner or later.

[yG @ Feb 16th 2009 5:23AM]

Exactly!!! It's not like every phone brand will copy Apple or the iPhone. Besides, where do you think Apple got its ideas from?

[Kendal @ Feb 16th 2009 7:12AM]

Wait, Apple got their iPhone ideas from phones that never existed before it? Or do you mean the app stores that never existed before it?

I'm just waiting for everyone to jump up and down about Palm's 30% cut and Nokia's 30% cuts like they did Apple...

[yG @ Feb 16th 2009 5:29AM]

If the N97 looks nice and functions excellently, then I might just go back to being a Nokia user xP.

[yG @ Feb 16th 2009 5:30AM]

and by looks nice, I mean, not too thick ad stuff like that. I hope they have the phone in black

[airmanchairman @ Feb 16th 2009 7:21AM]

Nokia has had an online App Store and portal for ages!

http://www.softwaremarket.nokia.com/

They are certainly getting their new ideas from Apple, as is almost everybody else, seeing how successful Apple's branding and presentation has become...

[LondonConsultant @ Feb 16th 2009 7:50AM]

I remember Android Market paid apps were originally going to be billed by network operators and simply added to phone bills, but it now turns out that users have to pay via the much more complex Google Checkout mechanism instead. I wonder what billing mechanism Nokia will use for its Ovi Store: PayPal, Google Checkout, iTunes, e-gold...

[Alex Terry @ Feb 16th 2009 8:25AM]

Well nokia currently have a weird pay by expensive text thing in the uk... will be interesting to see how or if this becomes integrated with ngage...

[nickfd @ Feb 16th 2009 10:26AM]

Hopefully nokia will give us more information on the n97 and at least a hint on when they plan on launching it too.

[Geoff @ Feb 16th 2009 10:47AM]

Ovi Store sounds like a place you'd hit up for some in vitro fertilization action.

[iKurt Mark III @ Feb 16th 2009 11:21AM]

This is suppose to compete with the iPhone? I laugh at Nokia.

[FILA @ Feb 16th 2009 1:47PM]

god damnit i want this phone to

[Tosten Burks @ Feb 16th 2009 1:58PM]

Will NGage be focused into the Ovi store as well? That could mean a world of difference.

[Hayden Boroski @ Feb 16th 2009 3:59PM]

Although app stores seem to becoming increasingly popular, I'm afraid of the long term affects of these stores. Working in the mobile industry, I've been able to see the damaging effects of these stores. While they do reduce the cost to developers from roughly $20,000-30,000 to launch an app on say AT&T to only $100 a year plus your own time investment, they are killing the proceeds of the carriers. While everyone seems to think that carriers are hugely massive companies with unlimited resources at their disposal, let me assure you they are not. Most if not all are hurting right now. Their major money maker (content) is dying. Smartphones allow you to add your own wallpapers and ringtones for free; hence, the only thing left for the carriers currently are J2ME or BREW apps. As more and more manufacturer app stores are released, more and more revenues will be taken from carriers. Some people think great!, shove it to the man; however in actuality, this will cause more downsizing, and more mergers of large carriers in the long run. Thus causing less consumer options and higher opportunities for price gouging. Now obviously I can't blame the carriers' financials on apps alone, but they make millions and millions of dollars on apps a year at almost 100% profit to themselves. While barely anything on actual phone/contract sales as the majority of your monthly cost goes into the standard cost of business, network maintenance and paying back the phone manufacturer the $200 discount they gave you.

App stores also worry me from the developer end too. While right now it seems awesome that you can start to build apps for these phones with barely a dime, think of how it might be when every manufacturer has its own store? Right now via the standard carrier stores, you can build 5 or 6 "base builds" that are then ported to every phone a carrier supports. In the future you will have to individually reprogram your entire game/app to every manufacturer/carrier you want to be on. This in the long run could turn into a nightmare. Not to mention that many of these stores will have to start imposing testing fees and other certification fees on the builds that you submit, simply to control quality and keep the crap out (something Apple seriously needs to look into). Which then will lead us back to where we are now with the high cost of launching an app, but scattered across different stores. I just hope everyone realizes that they may be shooting themselves in the foot with this move.

[Josh @ Feb 16th 2009 10:22PM]

5 Euros for a Tetris Game? Holy crap.

[Matoking @ Apr 2nd 2009 6:55AM]

Ironically enough, I got e-mail about this on April 1st, so I thought it was a joke.