Recent reports have Microsoft set to enter talks to acquire Nokia’s mobile business outright for a price tag that could be in the range of $30 billion. It’as a risky move, but here’s why a takeover of the world’s largest handset maker could pay off. Read more »
Nokia is rebranding its Ovi services, or at least what’s left of them, starting this July. Ovi Mail went to Yahoo!, the Ovi Store will wither with Symbian and Ovi Maps will integrate into Windows Phone 7. Might Microsoft buy Nokia’s handset division at this point? Read more »
Nokia is beginning to migrate its Ovi Mail accounts to Yahoo’s platform today. But wait: isn’t Nokia betting its mobile future on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7? This deal — nearly 11 months old — should have been shut down as soon as Nokia partnered with Microsoft in February. Read more »
Nokia’s Ovi store has taken a perceived backseat to the iTunes App Store and Android Market. We spoke with Qik EVP Bob Rosin and several other developers at Nokia World for their perspective on Nokia’s Ovi Store enhancements, Symbian^3, and the Qt development tools. Read more »
Nokia today purchased Motally, a San-Francisco-based web and mobile software analytics firm, which is a solid step towards improving the Ovi application store. Armed with demographic, application performance and other data, third-party developers can optimize their Qt, Symbian, Meego and Java applications for Nokia devices. Read more »
Trill, a full-featured Twitter app for the Symbian platform, is now available for free in the Ovi Store. Trill is a rich app from Spice Labs for phones lacking a touch interface. It brings all of the fun of Twitter to the palm of your hand. Read more »
There’s plenty of evidence indicating that Nokia has an Ovi-branded web browser in the works, although the company hasn’t officially confirmed the effort. What could Nokia possibly do with such an application when it already has a perfectly good WebKit browser on its phones already? Read more »
Spotify, the hot online music service that has taken Europe by storm, has been approved for launch in the Ovi store, making it a godsend for millions of Nokia users in Europe. As for Nokia, it will help the company fend off some of its rivals. Read more »
Practically anyone can create a Nokia smartphone application thanks to the new Ovi App Wizard. This is a step in the right direction for Nokia, but it’s not likely to raise the Ovi Store to parity with Apple’s or Google application stores. Read more »
Fox is releasing a so-called hypertrailer for its hit show Glee today that allows viewers to friend characters of the show on Facebook right within the video player while watching a preview for an upcoming episode. The key to this integration of additional web content within […] Read more »
Nimbuzz, a mobile VoIP service and social networking services integrator, says that its Symbian app has been downloaded more than a million time from the Ovi Store by Nokia. In other words, Nimbuzz is benefiting handsomely from increased usage of the Ovi Store. Read more »
Nokia, which recently launched a new, free version of its Ovi Maps app, may also open it up to outside developers via a more robust API than the one currently available as it looks to extends the app’s capabilities even further. Read more »
Despite a slow and troubling start, Nokia is finding some success for its Ovi Store and Services, especially in its traditional strongholds: Europe, Asia and Latin America. Nokia wants to chart a new course by focusing on messaging, music and mapping. An Ovi Update. Read more »
Nokia is now zero for three when it comes to mobile gaming; the company said it will shut down down its N-Gage service next year and fold it into its Ovi brand of mobile data offerings. The doomed service rose from the ashes of the game-centric […] Read more »
The mobile content distribution industry began to undergo a seismic shift last year with the launch of Apple’s App Store, and a host of competitors from across the mobile spectrum are in various stages of following Apple’s lead. Google was first with Android Market, which is built on an open-source platform backed by a consortium of dozens of key players in wireless. Research In Motion jumped on the bandwagon in recent weeks with its BlackBerry App World, and Microsoft, Nokia and Palm – among others — are set to launch offerings this year.The motivation to build an application-distribution channel varies from segment to segment, of course. This report identifies the major players in the application-distribution model and looks at how the trend will affect carriers, handset manufacturers, developers, content owners and end users. It also examines key factors that will contribute to the success or failure of specific app stores, general shortcomings in the new app-store model, what solutions are already needed and how the space will evolve over the next several years.
UPDATED Aug. 31, 2009 (9:31a.m.): Report re-posted with summary table included Read more »
Speculation surrounding Nokia’s Linux-based OS flared up again this morning with a Reuters report that the Finnish manufacturer will showcase a Maemo phone at Nokia World in Germany this week. So what would that mean for Symbian? It’s getting tough to dismiss Nokia’s attention to Maemo. […] Read more »
Nokia’s struggles over the last couple of years are well-documented: The Finnish handset manufacturer has watched its Symbian platform consistently lose market share in recent years, falling from a staggering 73 percent in 2006 to 51 percent in the second quarter of this year. And as […] Read more »
