Nokia Ovi press event this Thursday, 'big news' promised
By Tim Stevens 
posted January 18th 2010 7:59AM
posted January 18th 2010 7:59AM
posted January 18th 2010 7:59AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Propably just Ovi store to N900 Maemo with a few apps to download. Rebuilding Ovi will take a long while, so this isn't that.
@BFish
I was under the impression that they had been building it for quite a while now. They were aiming for big redo, which is the reason the current OVI store hasn't really mproved for a while.
I do agree that I also thought that was still a month or two away.
@BFish N900 already does have OVI store.
Nokia said last year already that 1.0 was a stopgap and OVI 2.0 has been on the works for long time.
Thinking that OVI store got 1 million daily downloads already if they got this right with 2.0 Apples app store really does have a competitor.
@BFish
Nokia will reveal symbian^4
Probably a less sucking ovi store
@Sunil At least faster and a bit better designed. It is kinda odd looking the way you need to navigate the apps
Aside from that, IMHO the idea of using the browser, in N900 at least, to access the store is GREAT! They can change the interface and everything without touching the client. And since in every App Store internet is needed to browse apps nothing better than this. I really dont like that little app for the app store in iPhone, very constrained little thing.
One can only imagine how the Ovi Store will evolve. The browser in the E72 has, at least, same capabilities as iPhone's Safari and N900, well, it is the best browsing experience out there...
Thanks, now I can't get any work done before thursday :P
There was also talk earlier about removing DRM from the music store and I really hope they will officially open the OVI store for N900. Now that would be something.
@Rev "N900 already does have OVI store.
Nokia said last year already that 1.0 was a stopgap and OVI 2.0 has been on the works for long time.
Thinking that OVI store got 1 million daily downloads already if they got this right with 2.0 Apples app store really does have a competitor."
Quoted from pdexter
@Mr w00t
Well I know that N900 does have sort of OVI store, since I have already bought one app from there =)
Still I don't think it qualifies as officially opened, the lack of payable apps, real official announcement and "beeta" sign do say something.
they are going to announce the 3 bilion downloads of the appStore? :D
@mex
Not enough fart apps for that sadly. :(
@ChazClout are you sure?
http://store.ovi.com/content/15385
@ChazClout and no... is not the only one :D
http://store.ovi.com/search?q=fart
@mex
Sill needs moar! :P
http://www.apptism.com/apps?query=fart&x=0&y=0
@ChazClout there are listed general sound machine apps, not only fart ones
Nokia just don't get it do they? They've lost their 'cool'.
An invite worded: ". . . where we will share some big new with you" and "We look forward to seeing you and telling you more . . . " sounds like it was written by a 12 year old.
Just sounds amateurish. =/
@dobba
Nah they just overcharged their 'cool' with N900, so they are now giving others a break :)
@dobba
What 'cool' way should they have put it then out of interest?
@ChazClout Just something that didn't sound like it was written by a kid and had a bit of something about it. 'Cool' sells and brings the hype, which is why Apple, whatever your opinion of them, are masters at it.
Nokia used to be a great company once upon a time - their dowdy phones and operating system is now dragging behind the competition. They need to up their game (this is coming from a Nokia user and owner by the way) and upon reading this invite I just thought 'boooooring!'
@dobba
So Nokia don't get it because their invite isn't "cool", according to you. Great argument right there.
@dobba sounds exactly like what people said of microsoft regarding vista. the thing is, when you have such a clear dominance in your field despite recent setbacks, you're always well poised for a comeback.
i think nokia is still going to be suckish this year, but i'm still going to be waiting for them to improve things, albeit against the odds
@giggig Errrr . . . when you can string a coherent sentence together and have decent grammar you can tell this 38 year old to 'stop releasing kiddish frustrations' matey.
It's an opinion, okay? Nokia may be the number one phone maker and sell X amount of smart phones, but they've recently lost a hell of a lot of market share and seen massive profit loss, releasing boring phones that are behind the competition. In my opinion, they've rested on their laurels, releasing phone after phone that's little more than a re-iteration of another similar phone.
I wonder what that 'big news is' forthcoming. I would like to bet that is nothing overwhelming. If you release an invite that claims to be something big then it had better be damn good. They're going to look mighty silly otherwise.
@dobba
Oh, they have really lost huge amounts of market share...
Q1 37% of global market share
Q2 38% of global market share
Q3 38% of global market share
Poor Nokia, what will they do if this keeps up ;)
@dobba
It's pretty obvious english isn't his first language. I'm sure you're intelligent enough to figure out what he's saying.
@Rev If you say so:
http://www.nokia.com/about-nokia/financials/quarterly-and-annual-information/q3-2009
@dobba
Like with most companies, year 2009 has been worse than 2008. Is there something strange about that? Device and service got 5% increase from Q2 to Q3 though.
Q3 is also a very bad comparison on actual profits since they did a one time one billion euro down write on the goodwill value of Nokia Siemens Networks. That is not actual operating loss.
@Rev & @dobba
Although Nokia may have great turnover with cellphone sales, keep in mind what phones they are selling... yes, its on the lower tier mainly, with that comes lower margins as compared to say a higher tier item as the iPhone. I'm rooting for Nokia, however, one must realize they haven't been as innovative in the marketplace, much like Motorola. Cue in Moto, and they have had the epiphany albeit rather late and they shifted rather quickly to Android and it's kept them afloat. Palm had an epiphany too with WebOs... Now it can be said N900 is Nokia's "light bulb moment" but it has a number of shortcomings; Maemo5 limitation, 3G radio not market based (i.e At&T/ Rogers for NA), and OviStore not organized... Apple really has their act together as much as I like to say otherwise, but the real ah moment will be if and when WM7 launches... just my take.
@dobba
Sure, but the loss is due to a write off on NSN who have nothing to do with the handset division which posted a profit of over a billion dollars for the quarter.
I know what you mean about cool though - Nokia need a serious high end handset. I don't think the N900 is it but I do think it paves the way for on.
@dobba 12 year olds could write something much more cool sounding
Oh maaaan! I'm not having a dig at Nokia per se - I'm a long time user of their phones (currently E71) but I believe they need to up their game somewhat. I use their Ovi store and it's sub-standard, poorly implemented and not very friendly to use and their current crop of phones I also feel aren't doing much to push the boundaries like other companies on the market are doing.
Whether they're the number 1 phone maker or not, they've been overtaken by the quality of phones from other makers and that invite says nothing other than 'average'. It's boring, badly worded and as a PR exercise does nothing to generate excitement, though they may have little to show to get excited about.
But if you're a Nokia fanboy and happy with average, then cool. I'm happy if you're happy. =)
Awesome!
I wonder what they'll offer for breakfast.
@aubreyq : hopefully nothing with apple in it.
More cowphone!
It will be half-assed, whatever it is...
"If you're a Nokia lover who is currently jealous of all the Apple fans and their current state of delicious expectation, we're happy to say that now you too can savor a little anticipation." ??
so engadget won't review N900 till JUNE ??
@kopi ice don't wait for engadget reviews. the recent ones all were more like "oh look this phone is not the iPhone and that's why it sucks." just don't expect anything else in further reviews.
@kopi ice - yeah, I really don't get why people are waiting for Engadget to review something. They're a fine newsblog, but reviewing stuff isn't exactly their strong side.
There's a ton of extremely detailled N900 reviews out there (and have been for months now) - just do a quick search:
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n900-review-421.php
http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/Nokia-N900-Review-review-r_2318.html
@NewL Somehow they seem to be very fine in reviewing Apple notebooks and Adroids...
@kopi ice
i just wan to see how they describe the LIVE multitask since iphone can't do multitask
@kopi ice here is a review for you.
She came to me on the N810. A box arrived on my door step with my name on it. I open the box and was bitten. The remainder of my days have left me allergic to all other Mobile platforms & devices. I noticed that my standards on quality were unusually high. i withdrew from smart phones completely. I literally have been disabled from buying a new mobile gadget for a year. I warn any potential N900 buyers. NOKIA AND MAEMO WILL CHANGE YOU..FOREVER!!!! proceed with caution. there is no turning back.
ps: maemo is light years ahead of the current engadget staff favorites. I dare anyone to get a N900 in their hands and attempt to return to the inferior, Iphone OS, or android. resistance is futile.
@kopi ice here is a review for you.
She came to me on the N810. A box arrived on my door step with my name on it. I open the box and was bitten. The remainder of my days have left me allergic to all other Mobile platforms & devices. I noticed that my standards on quality were unusually high. i withdrew from smart phones completely. I literally have been disabled from buying a new mobile gadget for a year. I warn any potential N900 buyers. NOKIA AND MAEMO WILL CHANGE YOU..FOREVER!!!! proceed with caution. there is no turning back.
ps: maemo is light years ahead of the current engadget staff favorites. I dare anyone to get a N900 in their hands and attempt to return to the inferior, Iphone OS, or android. resistance is futile.
@Alexandertron, Ramen to that, brother. Just like I couldn't turn back once I went Symbian back in 2003, N900 got me hooked on Maemo like a cracker to a crack pipe. In fact, there is no way in hell I could use less powerful device (user control power, not MIPS) ever again. Compared to Maemo, Symbian looks outdated, and iPhone looks childish. I dare any iFan to try Maemo browsing and then to go back to iPhone and honestly say that browsing is satisfactory.
Post readed, voted, and reply typed on a full Engadget site (sans the blocked content via AdBlock Plus), on Nokia N900.
I'm surprised they didn't just announce it at CES which was what...like last week? They obviously need something to spend the spare cash on.
They probably announce a client for livestock market and an application for making nigerian letters. Oh, and OVI now accepts sand as payment.
@Tofudog I dont know where you come from and (after this comment I really dont give a damn)... But you have a very "developed world" centric view on things.
I really hope some of those weird services Nokia came up with, Nokia Money, help people wherever they are. Not saying that Nokia is not charging for the service, but so are other people...
For you maybe a fart app would be more productive. ;)
Hopefully it's that the developers section and repository is back up.
Shit's been down due to DNS for like 3 days now.
Frustrating as hell when I am trying to flash my n900 and can't get in to get the OS downloaded.
@N8D So the Maemo-Extras repository is back up for me, but the Extras-dev repository is still down. :::sigh:::
Something else...
You would be better off comparing the n900 to something along the lines as the Moto Droid.
Owning both a Droid and an n900, I would say that those are probably the two to best compare against each other right now since they both have the same base form-factor, both are using fairly newer operating systems, and both have a shitty assortment of 3rd party applications.
IMO, the n900 blows the droid away in functionality. But the apps are pretty much non-existent for the platform. Just hoping that more developers jump on the Maemo bandwagon and port/create new apps for the platform, because the OS itself is amazing and runs circles around the Android OS.
@N8D
Luckily N900 has a framework that is already very familiar to many developers. The openness is probably going to cause a bit of a problem for all the DRM fans though.