Its name is Ovi Store, has been announced at the Mobile World Congress 2009 (Barcelona) in February, and on May 26 it went live for all Nokia users in the world. More than 50 Nokia devices were compatible with the service from day one and Nokia estimated that around 50 million people with Nokia devices would be able to benefit for Ovi Store. Initial number of applications was 20.000 and new applications creation is propelled by an high percentage of money going to developers. Moreover the Nokia N97 will be the first to come out with Ovi Store pre-installed.
The Global Intelligence Alliance Group conducted an interesting analysis on mobile market places. Different market places have been compared in terms of:
- time to market
- the ability to attract developers
- the rate of device adoption
- an efficient interface and user experience
- having a critical mass of attractive applications.
to get the following rankings table:
| Application Marketplace |
iPhone Apps Store |
Android Marketplace |
Ovi Apps Store |
Windows Mobile Skymarket |
Blackberry Apps Storefront |
webOS Software Store |
| Manufacturer |
Apple |
OHA |
Nokia |
Microsoft |
Research In Motion |
Palm |
| Time to market |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Attracting developers |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
| Device adoption / rollout |
1 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
| Interface / user experience |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| Number, variety and appeal of apps |
2 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| Summary |
9 |
7 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
3 |
Source: Global Intelligence Alliance. Points are allocated as follows: 2 – strong, 1 – medium, 0 – weak based on assessment/expectations of all application stores along the parameters.
It’s interesting to note that Nokia’s rank is two points lower than iPhone Apps Store’s, but equal to Android Marketplace’s. Further information in the Global Intelligence Alliance’s article.
What distinguish Nokia Ovi Store from the other marketplaces is the device and application heterogeneity Nokia had to manage and offers. Despite iPhone Apps Store, that is clearly made for one phone, Nokia Ovi Store covers more than 50 Nokia devices, Series 40 and Series 60 included, and because of this for each mobile application the Ovi Store needs to indicate the device compatibility. Moreover, even if every application you can find inside the Ovi Store behaves and looks like it has been developed using the same technology, the same programming language, it doesn’t ! In fact, a Nokia application you download from Ovi Store might be:
- A Nokia Symbian Mobile Application
- A Java Application (MIDlet)
- A Nokia WRT Widget
This might be seen as an advantage for the developer because she/he has the chance to choose the technology which likes more or which better fits to application features or customer requirements. And maybe it is, we’ll see what happens in the next few months.
