Comments on: Why Nokia's Service Efforts Have Fallen Flat

By: For Nokia’s Ovi, the World (Minus the U.S.) Is Enough – GigaOM

For Nokia’s Ovi, the World (Minus the U.S.) Is Enough – GigaOM — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:01:45 +0000

[...] set of reasons including its denial of competition from Apple’s iPhone, its hardware, and a botched launch of its Ovi app store. So last week when Tero Ojanperä, Nokia’s EVP of Services, decided to stop by to give me an [...]

By: Jody

Jody — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:04:01 +0000

One more thing I forgot in the comments about Ovi. Just how well did Apple’s MobileMe work at the beginning…

By: Jody

Jody — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:03:01 +0000

One important point missing about Ovi Mail is that it’s target is NOT Western countries anyway, it is the emerging markets where people don’t have a computer and Ovi Mail is their first email account. And from that target it is extremely successful.

It seems that the US always judges everything Nokia does from an extremely narrow viewpoint and don’t seem to realize how much effort is going into those new markets where the potential is enormous. How about the schemes started by Nokia to allow villagers in India to purchase a phone by small monthly payments?

Most of the comments about Ovi are also from the launch when it suffered overload. You almost hear nothing now because it basically works fine.

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:36:51 +0000

Mostly they are easy to use, single login is still an issue but how does the average customer find out about all these services.

Nokia’s shipped docs are useless.

By: Andrew Currie

Andrew Currie — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:37:56 +0000

“If the company can … learn to play nice with carriers”

Sorry but I think this is ass-backwards — it’s the carriers who are standing in the way of device-makers. The sooner they realize that they are nothing but dumb pipes the better, for everyone.

By: Jason Lackey

Jason Lackey — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:26:38 +0000

Darren, some might suggest that a proper implemention may not require any instruction but would rather be inherently intuitive and easy to use.

By: Jason Lackey

Jason Lackey — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:23:49 +0000

The N97 reminds me of a 1978 Chevy Malibu. Nokia is starting to remind me of GM. There could be some goodness in Maemo but Maemo and Ovi are sounding a lot like Saturn. While there were few places quite as insular as Detroit in 1978, I am seeing increasing evidence that Espoo is similarly isolated from some of the big big things happening. Here in California where everyone was driving Civics and Accords while the heartland was wallowing around in Crown Vics and Caprice Classics, I went to see District 9 in a local theater and looked around at the phones people had out before the movie. 9 or 10 iPhones and 1 featurephone.

I recall having heard of Ovi for a long time, but the first time I tried it the appstore thing wasn’t even available for the E71, which is sad since the E71 is one of the best and most popular phones they have. Really is a damn nice phone. Works now and has even been improving, but is still awkward to navigate and hard to find stuff in. Sorta like a microcosm of the whole S60 experience.

Anyway, I like Nokia and think that they build good hardware. I still think that something like the N97 with Android would be awesome. Not sure how clueful they are or will become with software or services. Sometimes you gotta play to your strengths.

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:15:06 +0000

ovi is the biggest waste of money on earth.

They should of just named it all Nokia this and Nokia that and shipped decent instructions and apps with each handset.