The best feature on the N97? Memory? Keyboard? No it's Ovi!

Applications address the limitations of our phones; shifting new interest into tired devices either by bringing wished features or an entirely new use not considered before. Ovi will be “the door” to bring those applications to our devices. So that’s why, for me, the best feature on the N97 is OVI. Once I get used/”bored” to the keyboard/touch screen/memory and other things it does, applications will spice it up and give it life. What’s great for everyone is that Ovi isn’t exclusive to the N97.

Nokia N97 on Ovi store from Michele Ficara Manganelli

“Ovi – Open the door to your digital world.”

If Nokia were to make an exact clone of the iPhone, with identical UI, at the same price, but the only thing different were internet services, Apple would win the consumer because of their thriving ecosystem of developers that have made such a content packed app store.

[iPhone and N97, by Robert Scoble]

Apps – that’s what Nokia used to be good at, at least for those who knew where to find the apps; you get the S60 device instead of another type of phone because of the plethora of software available for it.

[Of course, there’s another side which I can’t and won’t cover, which is the relative ease to develop an Apple app instead of a Symbian one. This perceived ease however, is part of a self feeding cycle – more users, more money, attract more developers, better apps, more users, more info about how to do make apps, more apps, more users more money, more developers…etc.]

Nokia already has a wealth of applications for S60, albeit some of them no longer functional on newer devices (shame really). However, it’s so hard to get them to the user. The apps are dispersed among several websites, some containing overlapping catalogues, some exclusives and some sites contain apps only from that particular developer.

e.g.

S60 Apps

• Nokia Software Market
• Nokia Beta Labs
• My Symbian
• S60
• Lonely Cat Games
• Divx Labs

Themes:

• Mobile 9
• MMC Forums
• Pizero

Games

• N-Gage
• Gameloft
• Dotsis

The Ovi store needs to deliver all currently available applications to the consumer:

• free applications,
• paid applications,
• beta applications for those who want to try it out,
• and the mass of themes available for S60 (vetted of course for copyright/inappropriate images).
• Non S60 applications, i.e. S40/Maemo?
• What about Map content/liscence downloads?

Just let users be aware that you have these apps, Nokia.

These apps then need a demonstration (not just description) of what it does, and and all organized into logical, filtered categories.

The most important thing is to get the consumer knowing that it’s all available in one place. The Ovi store.

In the Ovi store, every downloadable content relevant to your handset should be available. Games/Music/Themes/Tones/Graphics and of course APPLICATIONS.

There’s more to Ovi that just apps/downloadable content. There’s data syncing of calendar/contacts, email service and content sharing of user media. But it is the ease at which these downloadable content can be accessed that will make or break Ovi, which is essential for Nokia’s future success in the smartphone arena.

Nokia N97 on Ovi store from Michele Ficara Manganelli

…. Then maybe later address the prices so they don’t vary so much/make it an easier for impulse buying.

Tags: App, App Store, aPPLE, Applications, Beta, DivX, Divx Mobile, Games, iPhone, iTunes, Lonely Cat Games, Maemo, MMC Forums, Mobile 9, My Symbian, N-gage, N97, Nokia, Nokia Beta Labs, Nseries, OVI, Ovi Store, Pizero, S40, S60, Software, Symbian, Themes

Category: 3rd edition, 5th Edition, Applications, Games, News, Nokia, Nseries, OVI, Rant, S60, Suggestions, Symbian