Nokia said Wednesday that it will be expanding its focus on mobile devices by offering a host of new Internet services.
Launching the new initiative under the brand name Ovi --which when translated into Finnish, means “door”-- the Finland based mobile telecommunications behemoth is opening an avenue for consumers to easily access their social network, communities and content, as well as access a gateway to Nokia services.
Speaking to journalists at the Nokia Go Play event in Singapore, Nokia said that under the Ovi umbrella, consumers will enjoy Nokia Music Store, N-Gage and Nokia Maps.
Nokia Music and N-Gage will make it easy for users to discover, try and buy music and games from a range of artists and publishers, including exclusive content only available through Nokia. Nokia Maps, which is already available in compatible handsets, is a navigation service that offers maps.
“Ovi is an open destination where people can access all their existing web communities, content and Nokia services,” said Jose Luis Martinez, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Nokia Multimedia on the second day of Nokia Go Play.
“Ovi’s vision is to empower and enable Nokia users to realise the full potential for the Internet.”
Nokia, which expects the mobile device to become the most popular platform, or the “fourth screen” for enjoying digital content, is currently the No.1 brand for mobile phones in Asia Pacific and is the fifth most valuable brand worldwide. Some 900 million people use Nokia on a daily basis.
The Nokia Music Store--which has a concept similar to that of Apple’s iTunes—holds a library of international and independent songs which can be made accessible via a desktop or directly from a compatible Nokia device. Once a track captures their attention, consumers have an option of either adding it to their “wishlist” to buy later, purchase it immediately for download to their device or transfer purchased songs via their PC to compatible Nokia devices.
Nokia considers the convergence of digital music in mobile phones a lucrative area. According to Alex Lambeek, Vice President of Sales and Portfolio Management, Mobile Phones for Nokia Asia Pacific, 64 percent listen to music in a converged device and 2/3 of Mp3 player users have shown interest in migrating over to a converged device.
During a panel group discussion that was held during Nokia Go Play pertaining to the topic of Digital Music and its future, Director of Multimedia Experiences for Nokia Multimedia Asia Pacific, Jawahar Kanjilal said that he expects digital sales to overtake physical sales by 2009.
The Nokia Music store is set to open across key European markets first and in Asia in the coming months.
Individual tracks will cost approximately 1 Euro and albums from 10 Euros.
The N-Gage service is built on a noteworthy “try it than buy it” feature. This will give gaming aficionados the freedom to try a game first before deciding to buy it and download it on their Nokia device or PC. N-Gage will be available in November 2007.
Alongside its introduction of Ovi, Nokia also unveiled at Nokia Go Play, four new mobile devices it describes as “specially optimized for entertainment, music and games.”
The N81, N95, 5310 XpressMusic and 5610 XpressMusic boast dedicated music or gaming keys, expanded memory, large screens and extended battery performance.
The devices, which are expected to begin shipping later this year, will come packaged with the new Ovi offerings amongst many other notable features. |
