Nokia issued a press release saying they have opened the OVI Store. It will eventually be opened globally to just about 50 million Nokia devices including the new N97 which should be coming around soon. Currently the OVI Store is only available to users in Australia, Singapore, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Ireland and the United Kingdom but at&t has said the store will be available on their network before the end of the year. I think it will be interesting to see how well it plays out on the at&t network because it will be in direct competition with the Apple app store which is already available on the at&t network.

I have always loved the Nokia phones. they are great performers and have wonderful features for the market each phone is priced in. However Nokia has never been a huge fan of sending their phones state side something I struggle with understanding. Nokia has said they work with carriers on bringing over phones and bring phones users want. But as anyone who watches Nokia knows their sales here in the US have been on the decline. I really believe this isn’t because of the product or brand but instead a problem caused by the availability of their products. But that isn’t what this posting is about and I am no business guru.

The OVI Store would be great here in the US however with their delay opening putting the US farther back on the list really makes me wonder about them. I know the US doesn’t have the amazing market but looking at the Apple app store I have to really wonder. I know this OVI Store is not going to be anywhere near what the Apple app store is but there are ways to bring it to that level. Not opening it up is not one of the ways and could be something people look back on as a cause for failure. Think about the Apple app store it was opened up for developers, developers really took to the app store creating applications pricing them cheap as it evolved the applications became more and more integrated and looked great. Now you can get wonderful applications for a few bucks that have great graphics easy to use and have been tested out by many people ensuring you will have nearly no problems what so ever. Couple that with Apple giving decent prices with new contracts on the phone and you have a great product. Not even talking about the design feel and appearance of quality that comes on an iPhone. Still Nokia may be on to something doing a staged roll out. After all the market here in the US with Nokia is not great, they have been declining recently (I believe) and everyone remembers all of the problems when the iPhone was released down time registering apple having problems at&t having problems. Nokia did the staged roll out and still had problems I would hate to see what would have happened had they went all out and opened it up for everyone.

Browse the store at store.ovi.com and store.ovi.mobi if you are using your Nokia mobile phone.

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