Once Upon A Time, There Was A Store Called Ovi

I don't think Store is the right word to describe the Ovi store. In all other stores, you hand over money and receive items in exchange; in Ovi, you can get charged twice for a theme that won't download, and when you email for support you get long uncomfortable silences. Avoid!

How much of it is that it's still a pain in the beehive to develop games on the Symbian OS and then having to make sure it works across tens of phone models? This is something regularly brought up (and always contasted with the ease of programming for the iPhone), but is still true and if yes, do you see it changing sufficiently with the SF etc.?

Hi Ewan

Agree 100%. Rather than encourage small developers to the Ovi Store, they are actively discouraging us, by making it so difficult/expensive to add content. You will be aware that RMR Software have been distributing Psion/Symbian programs through lots of outlets/stores on the Web for over 15 years (Handango, SymbianGear....). And yet I don't have my S60 programs available on Ovi Store. Maybe Nokia should ask themselves why?

Questionnaire to self:

1. HAve I ever looked in the OVI store? Yes

2. Have I ever downloaded something from the OVI store? Yes

3. Have you ever downloaded a paid for item from the OVI store? No, they were all free.

4. Are any of the items that you downloaded from the OVI store still on your phone? No.

5. If the OVI store was effortless to use and all downloads were free or very low cost, do you think you would have used more of its content? No.

6. If there were a greater choice of high quality apps available on the Ovi store would you be more likely to be using those apps? Probably not.

7. What apps are you interested in? A good mail client, and ampping app. Already got the maps and Profimail.

8. Do you still visit the OVI stroe regularly? No, never.

Basically, I was curious to try it out and now I realise there it is of little use then I'm not interested anymore. Interestingly my iPhone using colleague has an almost identical story about his app store use. Except every now and then a little buzz goes round about some cool app, and he goes and tries it. There is no buzz about any Ovi apps.

hmmmm

Ovi sounds great on paper but in practice it's being sadly let down by inadequate infrastructure. I, like many others, have purchased stuff from Ovi only for the download to fail or there be a fault in the store leading to a 'connection error' being displayed onscreen.
With Apple's app store you get a proper receipt with an online database of your purchases that you can easily raise a query/error with. That way you get a speedy response to any problems with downloads. With Ovi you get a receipt, but if you attempt to raise a query with a failed download you get a stony wall of silence. If you go to the official Nokia discussion pages you will actually find kind hearted Nokia employees who are taking details of posters problems and using internal systems to actually fix the problem liekly in their own time. It's as if they are embarassed by the lack of a more visible and responsive 'customer support' desk in the store.

I had to reformat my 5800 recently and I've decided to not download the Ovi store app as it is an extra I can do without. I'd rather go to vendors and purchase direct from them where there is a more robust and visible backup system i.e. email with a better hope of a response.

The other problem I find with Ovi is the lack of modern looking apps. A lot look like really old grainy games you got on the SNES or Sega Master System. Although retro is good every now and then, today's smartphone owner would like a bit more polish from their apps. Maybe this is because developing apps for these devices is deemed a niche or not profitable enough so not enough is invested? Maybe it's a difficult platform to make apps for? (i'm not a developer so I can't properly comment) Perhaps Nokia needs to have a better front of house for their developer suites?

Ovi has potential...if you think about it everything at the outset has potential. The chance of success for anything depends on the quality of tools and infrastucture given to people in order to make things happen and work well.

Nokia screwed up this in 2006-2007 when they were more than happy to sell S60 phones as feature phones with only 5-7% of buyers to install any application. The extensibility with 3rd party apps wasn't promoted at all. Now when software is that counts not hardware, they have to pay the price.

Once upon a time I was a happy Ovi Store customer. I spent over 30 euros on the initial offers alone, which to be honest were pretty (let's just say) basic. I was very glad and excited that Nokia had finally managed to offer an app store.

But then everything changed. My phone crashed. The crash was not software related or had anything to do with what I did. I know that, because the Nokia service partner I visited told me that my phone crashed due to a manufactoring problem with my 5800.

3 weeks later, I got my beloved phone back and went straight to the Ovi Store to redownload my expensive apps, only to realize that I had to rebuy all of my previous purchases. Obviously I was pissed. I had spent way over 50 euros on stuff I would never get back.

It's that kind of behaviour that drives people away from the Ovi Store and in my case all of my friends too!

@unregistered (pls identify yourselves on AAS guys, it won't bite you 😊)

Very interesting, taking a cue from your questionnaire

1. Was I waiting for Ovi Store in great anticipation? Yes

2. Was I sad and angry when ovi store app was available only for touch and 3rd edition was left out? Yes, very much

3. Did I download the app on my N79? Yes, the moment it was available.

4. Did I buy anything from there? No

5. Why didn't I buy anything from there? Because I didn't know what to look for.

6. Is the app still occupying precious space on my card? Hell, no!

7. Has ovi frustrated you enough to ditch Nokia as a phone? Hell, no!

8. Do you miss Ovi store on your phone? No

the basic problem is, Nokia or rather Ovi store doesn;t know how to hype, what to hype in the store. I was clueless when I first logged in. I have lot of 3rd party apps. Handy Taskman, JoikuSpot Premium, IM+, Skyequickey, Gravity, opera, you tube, google maps, wavesecure, handy weather, quickoffice 6, qik.

What do you see in featured, probably apart from Gravity, all are crap, trailors of movies??? What??? I need apps to make my phone more peppy, efficient, I couldn;t find them there.

Ovi files became free, why wasn't it featured?

It did not work for me. Plain and simple. Don;t know about others...

Last time I used OVI the search engine refused to give any hints thus the apps was available. Secondly, planned to buy JoikuSpot and the price was �10 but after a quick search on the net I found it for $10 instead. Good for me Bad for Nokia!

Badly. I really fail to understand how Nokia allowed the client through their QA. Surely someone must have looked at it and thought "Hang on - this thing takes ages to start up and is painful to use".

On my N86 it takes over 40 seconds of displaying the Ovi logo before it starts to do anything. On my N95 8GB its even worse. I've not tried downloading anything from it for the simple reason that it is far too slow and clunky to use.

I wouldn't mind one bit if the actual act of making a purchase took a bit of time to do security and authentication etc, but for browsing the actual content there is no excuse for such a poorly executed application. All the app needs to do when it starts up is say "I'm a device of type X, give me a content list", then display it. How it manages to perform so badly is a complete mystery to me.

Good grief, Ovi Store's not even launched in most languages and isn't available by default on most handset firmwares yet, but there are already people on here writing it off!

Give it time for goodness sake! 😊

I agree there are major problems to fix, not least the rather poor store search engine which does its best to hide whatever you're looking for, but that's what a soft launch is all about, to identify all the bugs while the number of users is still relatively small. It's effectively a public beta.

If the problems are still there in one year's time then that's a big worry, but to only be one month into a soft launch... that's no time at all.

If you don't like Ovi Store in its current form vote with your wallet and don't use it. Refusing to buy something is the best way of telling a company what you think of their product. Unlike certain other manufacturers I could mention, Nokia doesn't force you to use their own store, so they are giving you the option of voting with your wallet.

But to say Ovi Store will NEVER be a success just because of problems in its first few weeks... that's just silly.

And what the heck is the rush? Why do people think stuff has to happen NOW NOW NOW or else never happen at all? I'd rather they learn lessons from this soft launch now and get the product done right BEFORE they start advertising it to all and sundry.

MOSH became OVI store. They (Nokia) said that.

OVI store is more like widget store. Using OVI store via PC or phone is just killing your freetime lol.

That's why I have commented critically AAS arcticles (way too many) about OVI.

OVI that, OVI this and OVI everywhere.

How about us? We are users and customers...

I dunno. I have some good apps from Ovi and some good apps from other sources (Google, Shozu, etc). It depends what you're looking for and where you choose to look.

The huge advantage the iPhone's app store has just now is that it's all under one roof so the casual user can just select what they want. Interestingly though, having checked what was on my iPhone owning friends' phones this weekend it's pretty much the same dozen or so apps or their near equivalents as are on my 5800.

I guess the truth is that there really aren't that many apps that people use continuously.

I agreed with most of your article.

However, I had a problem with this:
"DS piracy is not talked about". Excuse me?

DS piracy has received massive publicity.

R4 DS carts have been publicly available in Japan for several months, and could be bought in most video game shops! They were made illegal just recently. You can even buy them in vending machines!

DS flash carts have been covered in the West as well, for example in every large gaming media, including Edge magazine, or blogs such as Joystiq or Kotaku.

I've found good and useful apps on Ovi Store and to date, I've purchased two apps and downloaded a bunch of free ones.

Above all, I have been browsing it about once a week so far.

The issues I have with the Ovi Store right now is that it seems like a "me too" response to the popularity of Apple's AppStore and one that has not been executed completely.

Re-downloading is certainly one gap that Nokia has not addressed adequately, it is not even covered by their FAQ.

I am currently waiting on resolution on one such issue where I need to re-download an app that I bought last week.

My two cents worth as an American: the name "Ovi" is completely meaningless and enigmatic. I love Nokia products and prefer them to the phones typically foisted upon the public by US carriers, but if I asked 100 people here in the USA what the "Ovi Store" is, I can almost guarantee NO ONE would know or even be able to guess. The beauty of Apple products is their simplicity and intuitiveness for the masses. I could ask the same 100 Americans what the "App Store" is and probably all 100 would know and be able to describe it. I don't like the iPhone for it's specs, but its user interface is simply brilliant. Maybe the word "Ovi" means something elsewhere, but it is not self-evident. They should have stuck with "Download!" or something similar.

Ovi was doomed when it was launched.

Nokia never really did anything to make up for the relative lack of applications on S60V3, never did anything to make it easier to get an application tested and signed.

Did nobody at Nokia think to check out the competition? It costs 99 dollars to have an application tested and listed with the Apple store. For S60 it costs hundreds just for the signing, potentially thousands for the testing (and retesting), and that's for just one version. If you want to ship a touch and non-touch application, be prepared to double those costs.

Nokia should have fixed that before launching the store. Now that the store has launched with all of the stupid restrictions of the past, developers have looked and shrugged their shoulders and moved on. And honestly... who cam blame them?

There's nothing wrong with the name Ovi. How is it evident, for example, that Banana Republic sells clothes? Same with Ovi. It's a brand and the word itself doesn't have to mean anything. It's all about the marketing. You say: "I could ask the same 100 Americans what the "App Store" is and probably all 100 would know and be able to describe it." I would bet you they wouldn't have a clue. Doubt me? Watch this video where Google asks people "What is a browser?": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3vv0_RNTM8

Come on, its mind boggling that nokia could have released an app store without the foresight of what happens when you format your phone, or the download fails. how can they have missed this?!?! i bought gravity when ovi first came out. now i learn that i cannot re-download it, so i stopped using the ovi store completely. i dont even check it, out of principle. if nokia is going to have such poor execution, then they won't have my business. simple.

The Gravity Application should be downloadable from the official website and you need to enter your IMEI number to get another download. If you've changed your phone though, you DO have to buy another copy.

davekolmer wrote:My two cents worth as an American: the name "Ovi" is completely meaningless and enigmatic. I love Nokia products and prefer them to the phones typically foisted upon the public by US carriers, but if I asked 100 people here in the USA what the "Ovi Store" is, I can almost guarantee NO ONE would know or even be able to guess. The beauty of Apple products is their simplicity and intuitiveness for the masses. I could ask the same 100 Americans what the "App Store" is and probably all 100 would know and be able to describe it. I don't like the iPhone for it's specs, but its user interface is simply brilliant. Maybe the word "Ovi" means something elsewhere, but it is not self-evident. They should have stuck with "Download!" or something similar.

You're trying to argue against Ovi from an american viewpoint. Nokia's main markets are Europe and the far east. I find it hard to believe myself as a Brit that 100 people would know what an App store is. But maybe the iphone plays that big a role in American culture?

JohnnyN wrote:The Gravity Application should be downloadable from the official website and you need to enter your IMEI number to get another download. If you've changed your phone though, you DO have to buy another copy.

That's a brilliant idea. Combine a sale with the IMEI. Why didn't Nokia think of this? IF ANYONE AT NOKIA HEARS THIS, COULD YOU PLEASES IMPLEMENT THIS AND GIVE JOHNNYN A FU**ING MEDAL OR SOMETHING??!!!!!!

And the thing with the phone change could easily be solved by enhancing the "Switch" application already in place by Nokia for that exact purpose (which is phone switching)!

PLEASE PEOPLE AT NOKIA READ THIS POST AND ESPECIALLY JOHNNYNs!!!!

Linking to the phone's imei is not something new. Nokia supposedly already does this with nokia maps and ngage. But i've heard those don't even work right either.

It's gonna die soon..it won't be able to compete with the App Store

i have downloaded stuff from ovi store and recently purchased roadsync coz they had it on offer. heh. downloaded and installed went without a hitch.

then i had to hard reset my 5800 (corrupted web feed issue) and i had problems reinstalling roadsync.

i contacted dataviz and ovi store support. the former saying that they'll look into it and will give me a link to download the app in a week's time and the latter just called me up asking for purchase details and will contact me with further develoments.

both suggested "repurchase" to download the application again to which i answered a resounding "no way".

so now i'm waiting for the issue to be resolved.

i don't see the problem in having a repository of purchased apps to be downloaded since ur purchased is tied to ur imei anyways. cracked applications will always be around so they shouldn't make things difficult for people who actually buy applications.

The problem with Nokia is more general, not just OVI: it's a large group of managers behind the wheel that is the result of the situation. I met a few, and i think most (not all!!) lost contact with reality. Speak to some, and all you hear is they are great, doing great, and the rest, including Apple, are "Toys". Not taken seriously... Nokia rules, don't call us, we call you. Not. And that is the worste thing that can happen to developers and the entire ecosystem. Rock solid phones, but no ecosystem that drives it, they gave it away by being arrogant to long. And because of this, they lost it. But hey, THEY are Nokia. I can give dozens of examples but the problem for some developers like us is we still need them. Not as much as they need us, but that they do not realize yet. Things inside Nokia are changing, but a ship this size takes time to move. Incapable management, to many youngsters that know nothing, (can you hear them saying: "i know all, as i work for Nokia " This is the conception. Again, there are some excellent exceptions, but have the same problem- their management). When you see members of the board speaking, they have great vision, great ideas. But they simple have no tools (working management). As a result, (one result among many) OVI store is a laugh. Give this task to a group of 16 years old, lock them up for a while with chips and sweets, and they do better, and x-times faster.
But, like i said, Nokia is a hugh ship. It is steering, only the people ashore know where to go, but as there is lack of communication, and heavy waves from all directions, it will take some time.
Nokia needs to fix Forum Nokia first, fix the management, and fix the current store. Maybe simple kill it, and ask those 16 years to redo it. Let them explain why they made OVI like this, and do marketing on that. Creating awareness by desktop widgets will do the trick, that concept is great. And before continuing with upcoming devices, please, seperate all the rubbish like ringtones in OVI from Business users. It's a laugh to see most are wallpapers being suitable for E series owners. Nokia, you have no idea of these side effects....
Wonder what "Horizon" will do..... (But i'm afraid as it is to much a Nokia like situation)

Are you seriously criticizing people on here for voicing genuine concerns, concerns that have cost them their money and now you are even trying to deny their right to complain?
You talk of patience, we know about patience, we have learnt it by waiting for our email inbox to contain replies from customer care.
You comments would appear less stupid to all of us if you apologised for them, or withdrew them.

"....But to say Ovi Store will NEVER be a success just because of problems in its first few weeks... that's just silly.........."

Wrong! Rule No 1 in marketing, get it right first time or else people will not come back. The store is a failed beta release, sounds like a Vista to me. Apple understand these rules, Nokia do not.

"One last thing before we adjourn. I suppose we have to do something similar to Apple's app store. So go find a few disused PC's, find some programmers with time on their hands and tell them to slap something together. We'll call it the Ovi Market ... Ovi Bazaar ... no Ovi Store.
That's it then"