It does not appear like any mobile platform developers are going to become content material to sit on the sidelines whilst Apple enjoys tremendous achievement with its iTunes App Shop: in the Mobile Globe Congress in Barcelona, Nokia has announced it'll be rolling out its personal Ovi Shop in Might 2009…and rather than being a simple catalog of things people can buy for their phones, the shop will probably be a location- and socially-aware service that will offer games, media, and phone applications specifically targeting customers so users immediately see what Nokia believes to become the most relevant selections…a move that will undoubtedly please marketers and content material providers.
"The Ovi Shop will enable our devices to uniquely surface relevant content material for consumers based on the people who matter to them and the particular places they happen to become, bringing a new generation of media services to the fingertips of millions of people around the globe," said Nokia Services executive VP Tero Ojanperae, in a statement. "By leveraging our strengths as a company and the assets of our partners, the Ovi Shop is a 'smart store' that will change the way our consumers discover and consume content material on their mobile devices, ultimately making the experience easier, more fun, and, most importantly, more relevant."
Nokia says the Ovi Shop will combine elements of its existing content material services, including WidSets, Download, and Mosh, into a single service that offers applications replica vacheron constantin watches, video, games, podcasts, music, and location-specific information and applications. The Nokia N97 will probably be the first Nokia device to ship with a built-in storefront, but the Ovi Shop should be accessible to Nokia Series 40 and S60 devices. Nokia expects that over 300 million users will have access to the Ovi Shop by 2012—remember Nokia is the largest handset manufacturer on the planet. Nokia is also positioning the Ovi Shop as a premier delivery channel for Adobe built using Adobe flash—and Nokia's platforms represent the industry's largest footprint of Flash-enabled devices.
Ovi Shop users will have the option of allowing the Ovi Shop to serve up content material based on the user's place and social connections; the feature is designed to help the shop bring interesting things forward based on what a users' friends and family are interested in as well as a user's place. The Ovi Shop already has partners lined up, including social networking sites MySpace and Facebook. The Ovi Shop will accept payment by credit card or through operator billing.
Nokia expects to have the Ovi Shop operating in nine countries by Might 2009. Publishers and developers will probably be able to start obtaining content material in to the system beginning in March; developers and publishers will probably be able to charge what they like for their wares, with Nokia keeping a 30 percent cut of all sales.
