If you need to service your shiny sports car, you head to a small independent garage where everyone who takes their car there likes to be on first name terms with the owner. If you're pulling up with your runabout Golf Gti, then any old garage with a decent bit of reputation will be able to do the job, and you'll be happy that your car works again.
And this is one of the points that has been lost by some commentators in the rush of punditry over Nokia's Ovi Store launch. This is going to be the Wal-Mart of online stores. It's designed to be accessed by hundreds of millions of users, over a number of different devices – well over a hundred given Nokia's product lines, and those devices running multiple operating system variants (be it small changes between feature packs, S60 3rd or 5th Edition, or even the worlds apart S60 and Series 40).
This isn't a solitary boutique store for a single device platform, this is pile 'em high and cater for everyone strategy.
Nokia's Ovi Store pushing content, not applications.
As many are starting to realise now, Ovi Store is not just about applications. This is a content store, and this should mean that the revenue per handset/user is going to be higher than if it was 'just software'.
While developers will be happy that there is now an easier route to the screens of million of handsets around the world, those producing multimedia content must be looking at Ovi as one of their primary revenue routes in the next year or so. With the ability to sell the ever popular ring-tones and themes almost direct to the customers (and still use carrier billing) this is going to be a lucrative revenue stream.
I'd expect the top ringtones and themes to easily outsell, in terms of gross revenue, the top applications on the Ovi Store.
What's intriguing is that this may be an area that podcasters and short-form online media can exploit as well. There hasn't before been a simple transaction system in place that anyone could apply for – you could look at Ovi as just another wholesaler that powers the ringtone market, or as providing a direct relationship with Nokia and then straight to the customer, a store that will take pretty much anything you can upload (as opposed to a curated collection). Opening up for audio and video, and with a handful of fans regularly purchasing a podcast (e.g. a drama serial), you have created a brand new market.
Will we see Jamster make a big move into the Ovi Store?
With the breadth and scope of Ovi over the platforms it addresses and the various types of content that can be offered, the Ovi Store will be unlike any other computing platform store that we have seen. That's why it's an important step, and why the direct comparison to other application stores, while understandable, will not stand up to scrutiny in the short term.
The Ovi store may have a focus on applications, but its success will be in the consumption of other stock that will drive the bottom line for Nokia, the networks and the creators.
-- Ewan Spence, June 2009.