Archive for Ovi
by Darla Mack
March 3, 2008 at 2:08 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Nokia, Ovi, T-Mobile
Some recent announcements struck my attention and made me realize that providers not only in the US are trying to pull strings in order to get consumers back into the habit of using their services.
Something that is common practice here in the US between carrier and manufacturer has spread across to Germany and possibly (although not officially stated) other parts of Europe. T-Mobile Germany will be pulling all Nokia handsets (not that there are any available currently) that can access Nokia’s Ovi service. Their reason for doing so is clearly because they want consumers to utilize the similar services that they offer and charge for it. To sum this all up… they want to have a service branded device. Very much like the Nokia N75 offered by AT&T here.
In conjunction to this finding, Nokia has announced today during CeBIT a new carrier specific device which has taken on the model number of the olden days. The Nokia 6650 will of course be T-Mobile branded and specific to the carriers portal of services. Did anyone see this coming?
To me it seems that T-Mobile wants a piece of the pie. I’m sure Nokia didn’t project this, but then again they did accommodate them with a device. But since Ovi can be accessed from any device with a browser just what is it that T-Mobile is so worried about?
by Ewan Spence
September 21, 2007 at 7:26 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, SMS, Software, Events + Conferences, Podcasts, Mobile Applications, GSM, Mobile Email, Carriers, mobile social networking, Nokia, Ovi, Instant Messaging, Communication
As mentioned in our previous post from Tech Crunch 40, Debi and I sat down to talk about the five companies who won through to present on stage - namely Cubic Telecom (www.cubictelecom.com), Yap (www.yapinc.com), Trutap (www.trutap.com), Ceedo (www.ceedo.com) and Loudtalks (www.loudtalks.com).
There’s a lot to discuss, from business model, geographical challenges (both in distribution and acceptance), the might of the carriers and the handset manufacturers, and all the issues that a start-up in the mobile are going to have to deal with.
MM20 at Tech Crunch 40, pt 2:
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by Ewan Spence
September 4, 2007 at 11:41 am · Filed under Devices, ARPU, Nokia, NGage, Ovi
Nokia’s Go:Play launch continues to intrigue me, because even through the delightfully Finnish presentations, there’s a number of concepts and changes going on that, while having the potential to trip up Nokia, are more likely to be picked up as brave moves once we look back on this period.
The one I want to talk about today is their next move in the gaming market, and specifically the electronic distribution of the game titles. Nokia’s last foray into the gaming world with the N-gage and N-Gage QD gaming decks was for some a strange diversion with an ill-defined product that was both a phone and a games console, yet neither, at the same time. While it gained main supporters, critical acclaim was less noticeable.
At the key turning point of any console life cycle, about 18 months in, is when the games become well suited to the platform, the developers know what it can do, and the N-Gage was no exception. Yet getting a hold of titles such as Pathway to Glory, Ghost Recon or Warhammer 40,000 proved to be frustrating for the end-users. Major retailers no longer had the titles on the shelves, leaving the online retailers to pick up the slack. Not the sort of thing that impulse based purchase can cope with.
So Nokia have lifted the system out of everyone else’s hands and will be delivering all the N-Gage games through their ‘Ovi’ service. With a launch in two months time, users can expect to not only be able to purchase games over the air and download direct to their phone (or to a backup / game manger application on their PC) but to be able to download free trial version, extra levels or episodic content, or
All very Web 2.0, all very flexible, all leveraging the lack of a retail chain. Plus dropping the price to levels much more suited to impulse buying (full games are going to be between $6-$10, so expect the other options to be drastically less). About the only people not happy with this are the died-in-the-wool collectors now denied the chance to collect boxes, merchandising materials, and elusive beta/gold pressings of the titles.
If this all looks remarkably like X-Box Live, then you could well be right; just remember the 700,00 member strong Nokia Arena - which piloted many of these concepts, but not under one button on the phone - launched with the original gaming smartphones back in October 2003.
Military leaders have always known that the quickest way to loose a war is too loose control over supply lines. The comfy triumvirate of Manufacturer / Network / Customer has been a mainstay of the mobile business for a long time. From everything on show at the Go:Play event, Nokia have decided that they want full control over the entire customer path. Which is great for their business… but will they be able to wrest those customers out of the networks, while still keeping the networks on side to sell the phones?
by Debi Jones
August 30, 2007 at 9:25 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Events + Conferences, Mobile Applications, iPhone, Carriers, Apple, Nokia, Mobile Music, NGage, DRM, Ovi, Microsoft
Nokia needs to find someone other than their executives to put on stage for these launch events. Showmanship isn’t a Finnish strength. The devices and new direction of Nokia could have been an exciting event, and they’re talking about entertainment to the press. However, the execs struggled with the English language causing stutters and stammers, and they make Al Gore seem animated.
Ever watch someone totally uncool try to be cool? That’s the same awkward and uncomfortable experience of hearing a Nokia executive say that a phone made him think of “Funky, and ah, ah, and fresh.” These guys do a great job of running the market leading mobile device company, but when it comes to charisma, they are more Erkle than P. Diddy.
I had planned to continue live blogging through the Music and Game panels, but couldn’t hear the Music panel, because the first five minutes of the presentation contained repeated US industry bashing mostly from Rob Wells of Universal. The cliff notes version of the moderated discussion:
- Music Industry struggling
- US bad, UK/Europe good
- Digital only 10% of the market
- US bad, UK/Europe good
- Mobile is the answer
- DRM, DRM, DRM
- Not everyone wants only Britney Spears
- US bad, UK/Europe good
- iTunes no DRM solution?
- US bad, UK good
You’ll recall that Universal was the one music producer, and the world’s largest, who balked at Apple’s no DRM offering and single pricing model. Many people speculated about where Universal would go for digital distribution, and now we have that answer. The US bashing shut down my hearing and I couldn’t live blog the discussion. Sorry. Of course, there wasn’t any new territory discovered from the discussion or the Q&A, so the cliff notes version goes like this:
-
DRM, no DRM?
- Why Windows DRM?
- Stealing bad
- DRM good
- Compete with Apple
- DRM interoperability?
- DRM device independence?
Got it? That pretty much characterizes any discussion of digital music with music industry executives.
Several money quotes from the presentations.
1) From the Q&A in response to a question on the similarities of the new UI and iPhone’s UI
We don’t know what is copied, but if something is out there that is good, we will copy it with pride and if we are the inventor, then we have the inventor’s pride.
Long ago, when asked about Apple’s use of Xerox Parc’s GUI invention in the Macintosh, Steve jobs quoted Picaso: “Artists copy, but great artists steal.”
2) The goal [of Xpress Music] is stated as providing a superior service to Stop Stealing.
While I understand that the phrase “stop stealing” is music to Universal’s ear, this is a false narrative. The size of losses from digital copying of music is dwarfed by the physical CD counterfeiting losses that have plagued the music industry for years.
3) Push back from operator customers and how have operators done with their own services of this same type?
Different operators have different strategies, we are definitely trying to help operators in their strategies. Phones, devices are not enough anymore - often service is needed including ease of use. The way we have cooperated with operators in the past we will cooperate with them with the experience. This has not happened in stealth mode. This is complimentary.
Apparently, Orange doesn’t agree. Most tier one operators have their own music stores, navigation and maps applications, and even gaming catalogue. The new Nokia - the software and services company - expects operators to abandon their own deals with content providers and buy devices that are preloaded with competing services? Really? Unless I’m reading this wrong, Nokia is taking a huge risk that operators are happy to become the carriers of Nokia services.
As Apple and Microsoft continue moving into the mobile industry from a PC base and Nokia moves into the PC space from a mobile base, a comparison of the strengths of their strategies and positions makes sense as a next step.
Ewan Spence a contributor to MM2 attended the event and caught up with Rob Sears, Chief Architect, Multimedia Experiences at Nokia USA, and has an excellent podcast interview with Sears on the implications of the new Nokia.
