AWAITING OVI STORE LAUNCH WITH GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

Announced in February with a planned May debut, Nokia’s Ovi Store (www.ovi.com) has the benefit of learning from mistakes of earlier application stores, including Apple, Blackberry, and Android. One of the most powerful aspects of the Ovi Store is its social networking strategy. Consistent with the hypothesis that advertising is dead—or dying—and making best use Nokia’s acquisition of Navteq’s mapping capabilities, the Ovi Store reportedly will offer a recommendation scheme based on three factors: 1. The individual subscriber’s social network; 2. The individual subscribers’ location; 3. The individual subscriber’s particular interests. The Ovi Store's social discovery feature will allow users to share information about applications that they have downloaded. The Ovi Store will be available initially on an estimated 50 million phones, including S60 and Series 40 devices, using XHTML and Java. Nokia estimates that by 2012 300 million users will have access to the Ovi Store. The Nokia N97, scheduled for launch in June, will be the first phone with the Ovi storefront onboard.

An example of an application running on Nokia devices is the Nokia Sports Tracker (www.sportstracker.nokia.com). Using GPS information in compatible Nokia devices, information such as speed, distance, and time are automatically stored in the user's diary. Data can also be published and available on the Internet. The sports Tracker won the Best Mobile Internet Service award earlier this year at GSMA.

Nokia indicates that there will be thousands of applications initially available at the Ovi Store. Missing from the ecosystem is a public discussion group along the lines of Android, though reports are that a discussion group is being developed and will be available within a matter of weeks. Developer revenue opportunities exist through application subscriptions, advertising, content sales, and application hosting.
-Stuart Whitaker