Nokia opens the door on new content era

News

Tim Green Aug 29 2007, 11:45am

Nokia is now emphatically a mobile services company, announcing a major new brand Ovi.

In front of a packed audience of industry execs and press, the handset company unveiled Ovi (it’s the Finnish word for door) as an umbrella service for its music, games, mapping and internet offerings. The launch ends the speculation about Nokia’s intentions in the content sector. “We are now in the business of delivering experiences and services,” said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia’s CEO.

Ovi will integrate the forthcoming N-gage gaming platform, which has been confirmed to go live in November, and which will support the discovery, purchase, sharing, trialling and playing of games. It will also offer music downloads and streaming (OTA and sideloaded) across mobile, PC and other devices.

The launch was supported by the announcement of many new content-led devices.

The Ovi flagship is the N81, an 8Gb Nseries device that’s like a supercharged N95. The latter will also be re-launched with 8Gb of memory. Nokia also revealed two new Xpress Music handsets, the ultra-slim 5310 and the slightly higher spec 5610 slider. They have 2 megapixel and 3.2 megapixel cameras respectively.

Kallasvuo added: "The industry is converging towards Internet driven experiences and Ovi represents Nokia's vision in combining the Internet and mobility…we started this journey with our navigation services earlier this year and we are now combining all our services into a single branded offering - Ovi by Nokia. Over the coming 12 months, you will see us integrate new user interface elements, service suites and web communities to Ovi.”