In a special edition of our AAS Insight podcast, recorded today (launch day of the Ovi Store), Rafe, Ewan and Steve share their first thoughts on Nokia's content shop. We talk about some of the initial connectivity and load problems (but try not to dwell on them), plus the usability of the Ovi Store on-device client. We conclude, after kicking the store while it's down (literally), by sharing some of our positive impressions.
The Ovi Store roll-out just reached the UK in the last hour for many device product codes, it seems that the store availability is still proceeding around the clock today, around the world, for up to 50 devices and (estimated) around 50 million customers. Go into Download! on your Nokia S60 device and hitting 'Refresh content', Ovi Store is now showing up, for example, on my 5800 XpressMusic (and my N95) in the root folder of Download. Screenshots, observations and comments below.
Nokia's Ovi Store has soft launched in Australia; the information we recieved indicates that Ovi Store is now accessible on a Nokia E75 on the Australian operator Vodafone (see updates, in full story, for other markets). Ovi Store is Nokia's content store and download application for applications, games, wallpapers, themes, ringtones and video clips.
We're expecting the roll out of Ovi Store, in other countries, to continue over the next few hours and days. It is likely that a formal launch announcement will be made this week. We'll be updating this story, and will have full coverage of the Ovi Store once it launches in the UK. For now read on for more details and the first live pictures showing Ovi Store in the wild!
Something for just about everyone this week: the Mobile Sensor API for Java ME on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, an update for S60 5th Edition theme creation, and an extended service for mobile advertising from NAVTEQ.
It all started with a tweet of mine: "Why is almost EVERY game on the iPhone better than ANY game on S60?", penned in a fit of frustration after reviewing yet another batch of insanely good iPod Touch (iPhone) games. And this got retweeted plenty, so before I get burned at the stake by the N-Gage boys I thought it would be worth expanding on my necessarily brief original Twitter post. Read on for my thoughts, especially apposite given the Ovi Gaming site launch and imminent Nokia Ovi App Store...
Kudos to Vaibhav's researching skills as he scours the Internet for photos and videos taken on the upcoming Nokia N97 and collates them all into a single post. The samples all look pretty decent, especially the videos taken at high volume - something which the N95 and N82 would object to.
Our sister site, All About N-Gage, has evolved into Ovi Gaming. The new name reflects an expansion in the coverage of the site. In addition to providing the usual comprehensive N-Gage coverage, Ovi Gaming (OG) will provide coverage of games available via Nokia's forthcoming Ovi Store, which we expect to arrive very soon. As before, we'll continue to feature the best of Ovi Gaming content, here, in AAS's news stream.
How many phones should you make? Every time a company launches a new smartphone, they have to make a decision on how many to make and balance the need to have stock, create a demand for the product, and not leave so many on the shelf that you lose money overall in the batch. Is this decision the key to market survival in a recession?
It's today's public service announcement: Nokia and Adobe have updated Flash Lite to version 3.1 on the Nokia 5800. It is available, not via a firmware update, but as a standalone update via the 'App update' utility. It's a 700k download and installs without even needing a restart, which is pretty cool. Flash performance in Web is doubtless smoother, comments welcome if you notice a site-specific improvement. (via the Nokia Guide)
There's a fascinating piece over at Unwired View on a recent Google patent application for 'activating applications based on accelerometer data'. Along the lines of Rafe's thoughts on smarter software (of which more in Monday's podcast), the idea is that your phone detects what you're up to and automatically presents the applications it thinks you might need. Is this a step in the right direction or the tip of a dangerous iceberg? My thoughts below.
At their recent developer summit Nokia described how it would be opening up the Ovi platform to third party developers. Apps on Maps was given as the initial example and now, at the Where 2.0 conference, Nokia has announced more of the technical details for the web side elements. The Ovi Maps Player API will allow developers to embed Ovi Maps on third party website and create 'mash-ups' by overlaying data and interacting with the map. As such it will be in direct competition with the Google Maps and its accompanying APIs. Read on for more details.
In response to popular demand, I've added the Samsung i8910 (Omnia HD) to my 'choose your perfect smartphone' Grid, along with the HTC Touch Pro 2 and the HTC Touch Diamond 2. How does the Grid perform for you now? It chooses the Nokia E71 for me, followed by the 5800 XpressMusic, which isn't a million miles out. Comments welcome!
It may be named an enterprise device, but Nokia's E75 could easily measure up as a consumer device on the High Street, couldn't it? Ewan takes a look at the slider form factor device from the point of view of the regular man in the street. See also the rest of our full Nokia E75 review: Nokia E75 - Part 1: General Design and Hardware (Rafe) and Nokia E75 - Part 2: Camera and Multimedia (Steve)
Google has announced that their new Google Sync for Mobile now supports S60 phones. You can now synchronize your Google Contacts and Calendars, but not via SyncML, rather disappointingly. Instead, sync has been implemented as a profile for Nokia Mail for Exchange, which has to be installed separately. The advantage of using MfE is that it's based on push technology, meaning that changes should automatically appear at either 'end' within minutes, i.e. your information is constantly up-to-date.
Always interesting to see the latest figures coming out, this time from Gartner for Q1 2009. Nokia's market share in the smartphone world had fallen slightly, to 41%, but they still sold more devices (15 million) than the next four manufacturers put together. The 5800 in particular was pointed out as a success story. Behind Nokia in the stats were RIM with 20% of the market, and Apple at 11% with their iPhone. In terms of smartphone OS, Symbian powered just under 50% of devices sold. Comments welcome!
