Bill Perry, one of the senior services manager for Forum Nokia has blogged about the Ovi Store and some of the numbers driving the growth. Over 100 devices, in 20 countries, with the N97 and the 5800 being the top devices. The average user has downloaded 8 items and there's been 70% growth in October's downloads compared to September.
Read on in the full article.
but what are they downloading? i haven't been able to find any real useful content inside the ovi store, on the rare occasion that i can actually login.
at this point, the best apps for symbian seem to be much more easily accessed by just visiting the appropriate website, and downloading a sis file. opera mobile, tweets60, google maps, the occasional nokia beta lab app...
the ovi store just seems filled with crapware and awful, awful themes and wallpapers. granted the iphone app store is similarly filled with bloatware... but on that platform at least, you are relatively locked in to using their app store, which ensures that at least some good content appears there. with the ovi store, as with most symbian download sites, the bloat and visual nightmares seem quite prevalent.
of course, i love my n79 still, and none of these comments are meant as spiteful, but when will nokia incentivize and encourage quality apps while filtering out all of the awfulness? (the article on this site suggesting more quality control on the app stores is spot on).
-b
@Unregistered RE: What?
"but what are they downloading? i haven't been able to find any real useful content inside the ovi store, on the rare occasion that i can actually login. "
personally, i find there is a good deal of useful content but it tends to be static. that is, it's the same useful stuff that was there months ago. i've seen it already. i have it if i want it. there is a lot of CRAP in there ($5 wallpapers, are you kidding me??). i dont have any login issues either - but i'm using the latest ovi store client on the N97. maybe the version for your mobile is crappier?
"at this point, the best apps for symbian seem to be much more easily accessed by just visiting the appropriate website, and downloading a sis file. opera mobile, tweets60, google maps, the occasional nokia beta lab app... "
err... Opera Mobile beta 10 is in the Ovi Store. same with TweetS60 and the occasional Nokia Beta App (handwriting calculator, Ovi Maps beta, step counter, etc). Google Maps? alas no, not that i've seen. but, umm, going to the one location to download all of these seem much easier to me. and not having to press ok, continue, i agree, etc 5 times per install is GREAT.
"the ovi store just seems filled with crapware and awful, awful themes and wallpapers."
indeed. i really wish i could filter out ALL THEMES and WALLPAPERS. i will never want to see any of them, or install even a free one. maybe that makes me odd, but i'd think everyone should want to be able to filter out content that aren't interested in. and my god, miscategorized content like WALLPAPERS listed under UTILITIES - those devs should be kicked repeatedly in the groin. bad enough i have to see their crapware in the default 'recommended' view, but also in the specific categories meant for stuff i actually want? common!
"granted the iphone app store is similarly filled with bloatware... but on that platform at least, you are relatively locked in to using their app store, which ensures that at least some good content appears there."
indeed. but you just made an argument against supporting the external sites. so... stop going to opera.com to get opera mobile and insterad get it from ovi store. then opera will be more likely to push their content to ovi store in the future. so, your vote counts - vote for the system you wish to have in the future.
"with the ovi store, as with most symbian download sites, the bloat and visual nightmares seem quite prevalent."
yup. wait no. what? the ovi store doesn't seem bloated to me... you mean the content sucks? yes it does, lots of it does. but we already agreed on that. i'm missing your point here i think.
"of course, i love my n79 still, and none of these comments are meant as spiteful, but"
good for you. i'm starting to HATE my n97 😞 2 hard resets in 3 days now. yay. i've only just started tracking the frequency of NECESSARY hard resets. you know, times when turning on the phone results in the white screen of death? i'm pretty annoyed with my n97 right now.
"when will nokia incentivize and encourage quality apps while filtering out all of the awfulness? (the article on this site suggesting more quality control on the app stores is spot on)."
we're on the same page at this point. nokia: punish the bad developers. i know you want more STUFF in the store but adding kruft is just that, kruft. its like padding a bad resume. you're better off with a half-page of great truths than 2 pages of fluff that is obviously fluff. right now even a barrage of fart apps would improve the overall content quality, since farts apps are AT LEAST APPS, and inherently superior to $5 GIFs sold as wall-papers. seriously. i'll even buy a fart app in the effort to vote with my $. also, seriously: give me the address of those developers selling wallpapers for $5, i want to go kick them in the balls.
-bit
-b
Amazing. If you believe everytihng you read in AAS forums, OVI store is completely unusable and full of nothing. Then out there in the real world.......
I have downloaded quite a few good apps from OVI store to 5800. Some have since been deleted but others are quite useful. Like the spirit level and the memory status app. I had no trouble logging in and using the OVI store ever. And it's all been free.
It must just be that AAS attracts mostly moaners who are upset by their own inept attempts to use their phone.
Looking for good apps, I use there all the time:
Photorama great for panoramic pictures (I have been using on the N95 for a long time), really great on any 5MPix device (I mean really great 😊 ) Phototwiser is great too.
http://store.ovi.com/search?q=scalado
JoikuSpot (turn your phone into a Wifi access point)
http://store.ovi.com/search?q=Joikuspot
SMS Preview (view your SMS for a short perid of time without opening the SMS)
http://store.ovi.com/content/6A794C0B862D9278E040050A87323A73
Worldmate 2009
http://store.ovi.com/content/680C42A2A4A3F8CCE040050A85325203
I Parked here- Use GPS to mark where you parked
The trial version looks pretty good, when I get my 5800 back will probably buy this
http://store.ovi.com/content/7426C07477EEC570E040050A87320BDC
Cheers,
Kevin McIntyre
Sorry but I like the ovi store, and have download a few bits for my 5800. Sure some I have also deleted but I cant fault it. Its great to have a fee free e books on the phone from the Ovi store
I might be too skeptical, but the fact they don't give actual download figures, makes me feel those download numbers are far too low to announce.
I also wonder, what do people download from there? Having tried Ovi Store on Nokia N97, I found a couple of applications and mostly useless videos, ringtones etc. There are more good S60 apps available elsewhere, for example My-Symbian.com.
After Ovi store got the redownload "feature", I am more inclined to downloading from the Ovi Store. I purchased a few apps and after a hard reset, I was able to re-download it again, without any hassles.
However, I'd like to see Ovi store attaching the app to my IMEI and giving a copy for download into my phone so that I can back it up and use it anytime I want.
For one app, download failed many times and eventually I got a message that I have met my download limit. I contacted Nokia support and they emailed a like to download the app, which was alive for 2 hours.
So I am happy with how they resolved the issue but wouldn't want to contact support for every such issue.
What this probably means is that they really had crappy september and just sucky october
Now, granted that there are some good apps on the Ovi store, in general it still falls far, far short from what it should be. Clearly, there's a problem.
Let's take themes. For example, the themes you can find at http://www.tehkseven.net - where scores of themes are added at a time - may kind of suck sometimes, but ALL OF THEM ARE FREE. It is absurd to pay for a theme that's fairly lame when you can find lovely free ones.
As for apps, there are some good ones, and I've downloaded them. But there's also a lot of expensive crap. (For example, I purchased a solitaire game theoretically compatible with my phone that was both extremely poorly programmed and barely readable - essentially unusable - for my N97.) My main complaint, though, comes from the way the store delivers the product you've purchased. On most Web sites, you can download the code to your computer, thus giving you a secondary backup. If you lose the files on your phone, you're out of luck unless you've thought to do a backup via your PC. Also, my phone service has often not passed on the SMS message giving me the download link (I'm in the Middle East).
The pace of change on Ovi is also minimal. You can log in from week to week and find only a scant number of new apps.
In all, I'd give the site a C- � Nokia needs to wake up! Its complacency has led it to this point: an already-out-of-date flagship phone (N97), a poorly built and feeble apps store, and a huge annual loss. All of these indicators show that the company needs to reconfigure itself and its products, and TODAY.
Well, based in my own experience.. the average user hasn't even registered in ovi! 😃 😃
I know 6 persons with 5800. 1 has visited and discarded the ovistore, 2 of them know something called ovi exits and 3 of them don't even know about its existence.
I've tried it and didn't even bother with registering due to the low perceived value (for my tastes and needs, that is).