Seven reasons why Ovi Store's launch is a very important event
Nokia's announcement that they are launching an applications shop was long expected, and the general consensus seemed to be that there were no real surprises in the MWC press conference.
But actually there are some details which are very significant indeed. Ovi Store could radically change the way people think about Nokia, their devices and their services:
1) Ovi Store isn't just an apps store, it's a general content store
If you look on the publisher site for Ovi Store they are accepting submissions for selling applications, games, music, videos, podcasts, themes, wallpapers and ringtones. It could well be that non-app content will dominate the service, especially if the content is easy to navigate and purchase.
2) Ovi Store will be available on both smart and non-smart devices, including Nokia's cheaper Series 40 phones
A lot of people have talked about how Ovi Store will be available on Symbian S60 devices, but many have missed the point that it will also be on Nokia's cheaper Series 40 range, which costs as little as 30 euros per SIM-free phone.
The reason this matters so much is that Nokia's smartphones sell approximately 60 million units a year, while their non-smart phones sell about 350 million a year. Series 40 could well become the main userbase for Ovi Store, which would give it a global reach far beyond smartphone-only app stores.
And of course in the midst of a recession more and more people will consider buying Series 40 "dumb" phones instead of S60 models, so this is a good way for Nokia to hedge their bets on how the phone market will move.
3) Owners of existing S60 and Series 40 phones will be able to install Ovi Store onto their phones
Tucked away in the Ovi Store publishing FAQ is an intriguing statement: "(Ovi Store will) be available on a wide range of new and existing S60 and Series 40 devices, either by clicking and updating the Download! client found on the device, or via download from the device web browser."
...so it sounds like anyone with a Download! icon on their device (which includes all S60 and many Series 40 models) will be able to put Ovi Store on their phone themselves. They will immediately be able to access Ovi Store content without having to buy a new phone.
4) People will be able to buy content through phone bill payments as well as credit cards
A lot of people (this writer included) do not have credit cards. If you look at Nokia's global userbase of approximately 1 billion, it's possible that the majority of their customers do not have credit cards.
Ovi Store will allow people to pay for apps, games and other content by charging it to their phone bill, which should greatly increase the number of people able to buy content online.
Some mobile developers will be upset at the lower revenue share from phone bill payments, and may prefer a credit card-only system. But that kind of attitude is missing the point completely: a lot of people simply cannot pay by credit card, so the only way to get a sale from them is the option of paying by phone bill. A lower-profit sale is surely better than no sale at all.
5) MOSH and Download! are being replaced by Ovi Store - will other Nokia services merge with it too?
Nokia's announcement implied that Download! and MOSH will be replaced by Ovi Store, but are they the only services that will disappear? For example, will Nokia carry on selling N-Gage games separately or will they be on sale in Ovi Store? Will Nokia Music Store tracks be available in Ovi Store? What about Nokia Maps subscriptions?
Conceivably Ovi Store could become the single distribution and purchase method for all of Nokia's services.
6) Could Ovi Store become the main way of obtaining digital content in the developing world?
Most of Nokia's sales are in developing countries, where people may not have access to a traditional computer at all. A mobile phone may be the only form of computing device available, and if Ovi Store is built into that phone it could become the main way to obtain apps and other content.
7) Ovi Store will include freeware and open source applications
One of the most frustrating things about Download! was the inexplicable absence of brilliant freeware like Y-Browser, Frozen Bubble etc. By allowing freeware and OSS authors to make their software available on Ovi Store themselves, it should become very easy indeed to distribute open and free-of-charge content.