This is good.
Everything about the ovi store makes me want to throw up.
"People often ask, 'What's a "Nokia"? – is it some new kind of yoga or a fashionable new diet?' Then you remind them – it's the platform for the Ovi mobile services experience – and the fog of confusion quickly clears." – The Register, August 2010 Tears will be shed in Shoreditch and Soho tonight as Nokia has confirmed it is …
Got OVI maps on my company X6 and offers different routes every time you do a journey, also happy to tell you to turn around miles into a different direction rather than work out from where you are going.
"Yes I am near junction 9 M5 and yes I am going to drive past and across to Swindon rather than go all the way back to the M42 A34 to get to the M4"
"Yes I am at Cirencester and I am going to Swindon NOT Oxford to get to the M4"
Yes I was trying to get to a place near M4 M25 junction.
Try driving from the M1 (South of Sheffield) to Scarborough... As any local knows, the quickest way is M1, M18, M62 East, then Howden, Driffield and follow your nose.
Google Maps spent an hour insisting that I needed to make a U-turn to go all the way over to York to get on the A64. All the while the estimated arrival time was going up and up. When it finally gave in and re-routed they way I was going, the arrival time dropped by over 90 minutes!!
I only really have it set up and running for the giggle factor, and the estimated arrival time is usually fairly accurate - handy for telling family when you will arrive.
It killed the rather handy (on conventional non-touch smart phone) widgets.
There already was a web based eco-system of symbian Apps.
It killed what was there without replacing it. The only advantage Nokia had above Android and iTunes was complete random openness. Ovi threw that away.
It would be like as if MS decided only MSN could deliver anything for Windows.
(from the Nokia blog) "The transition should be a smooth and seamless one."
and this..
(from ovi.com) "Get started today - sign up is as easy as 1-2-3. Register your new free email address today! Sign up for Ovi Mail now "
and this..
(blog again) "Each of the services under the Ovi umbrella will simply be rebranded as Nokia, with no planned disruption to the service roadmaps."
I'll no longer be 'fluffybunny69@ovi.com', but 'fluffybunny69@nokia.com'.
Yeah, I luuuve the new branding!!!!
A reply from Jerri DeVard, (EVP and CMO) will make interesting, if not keyboard-coffee-splattering reading.
OVI software has already been a major contributing factor in my decision to never have another Nokia phone, despite swearing by them until recently (I now swear AT them).
OVI insisted on syncing every picture on my laptop with my handset; over 100 gig of photo's (grandchildren, canals, cars...not what you were thinking!), 32 gig of memory on the phone.
Despite trying every setting available in OVI I couldn't persuade it to just sync to one folder, even though the settings appeared to tell it to. It was, with the Nokia/Microsoft alliance, the last straw.
Samsung Galaxy for me now. Superb phone.
Large, well known and trusted mobile company creates an irrelevant and largely unwanted new brand as a side arm.
Over the next few years the large and trusted mobile company shoots itself (and customers) in the foot (and other non-fatal areas) until the large and trusted mobile company has become irrelevant and unwanted. It is now perfectly aligned to the side arm is created, so a perfect docking manoeuvre is now possible.
Don't these overpaid fools *know* that we recognise bullshit...
"We have made the decision to change our service branding from Ovi to Nokia. By centralizing our services identity under one brand, not two, we will reinforce the powerful master brand of Nokia and unify our brand architecture – while continuing to deliver compelling opportunities and experiences for partners and consumers alike."
Don't their employers know? *Why* then, do they continue to pay these idiots to write this stuff?
One does worry for the Finnish quality of life if Nokia goes down the pan. The Microsoft software deal sounds worryingly one-way also - Microsoft can surely find other handset makers, anytime it likes, concurrently with Nokia, but Nokia will be tied to MS. Maybe a buyout of Nokia by MS is a good thing for Nokia - but when they slim down the bureaucracy, one does wonder at what it's going to do to the Finnish unemployment figures.
Ovi maps:
you have to press the "different route" (or whatever it is called now) button, else it tries to get you back on the original chosen route, assuming you missed a turn or something, even though it makes sense to go away from your destination.
Apple has iTunes
Samsung has Touchwiz
HTC has Sense
Nokia had Ovi
... >>>As a result Ovi was a strong disincentive to buy a Nokia phone - when devices from rivals could get you to where you wanted to go quicker and easier<<<
I take that as a dig at Ovi Maps.
Maps was the main thing (well, next to the low price, perhaps) that got me to buy my 5230, and I haven't regretted it.
Sure Google Maps is fine for domestic use, but I use Ovi Maps for navigation abroad too. It's worked very well for me, and with the maps on the SD card, exorbitant roaming charges aren't an issue.
As for the rest of Ovi's on-line offerings: Meh.
And the Ovi Suite program? That's a hideous, bloated, bug-ridden mess.
The old PC Suite was ugly, a little buggy here and there, but at least it was mostly functional. Ovi Suite? Functional? Not so much.
My next phone will most likely be some sort of Android offering. That should still be a few years away, though, as the 5230 seems to take quite a beating and just keep going. I'm hoping roaming charges will by low enough by then for off-line nav to no longer be a requirement.
In which case getting Microsoft to do the software should be OK?
er.................................
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! - they never have been any good at mobile phone software either.
It's no wonder that the VERY PROPRIETARY iPhone has done well.
Big mistake Messrs Gates and Balmer. - Must try harder.