Gerard Grech hoping for more bouqets, less brickbats.
2009 wasn't the best of years for Nokia, particularly when it came to its Ovi Store. Criticised by consumers and developers alike in its early days, the store has suffered from constant comparisons with Apple's far slicker App Store for iPhone and iPod touch.
However, in recent months the situation has started to improve, with iterative improvements to the Ovi Store client, and the first success stories from developers like Polarbit and Nimbuzz, both of whom recently announced million-download milestones.
Meanwhile, Ovi Store itself is now doing one million downloads a day, although Nokia hasn't broken that figure down into a.) free and paid downloads, or b.) apps versus ringtones and wallpapers.
Head of content, media Gerard Grech sat down with ME at Mobile World Congress to talk about Ovi Store's ongoing development.
“We've been averaging one update a month to the client, making sure we're iterating the experience based on user feedback, and also publisher feedback,” he says.
“It's almost on a real-time basis, rather than waiting months before making any changes. We're making that culture a part of the DNA of the Ovi Store team, as well as having this continuous feedback loop with publishers.”
Many of these changes are simple – and arguably should have been there from the start. For example, the most recent improvement was the ability to serve up different apps and content on the store's homescreen depending on the user's device, and their country.
Grech points to other developer success stories besides Polarbit and Nimbuzz – for example Finnish firm Rovio had more downloads of its Angry Birds game on Ovi Store in a week than on six weeks in iPhone's App Store.
He also suggests that brands are finally waking up to Ovi Store's potential scale, citing fashion brand Zara. Nokia is trying to persuade others with the launch of a new tool called Ovi Apps Wizard.
“It's currently invite-only, and is an opportunity for brands to be able to go in and make highly relevant localised content in a template-based form,” he says.
“Companies out there may well not have the mobile expertise or the budget to develop really sexy apps, so our intention is to make sure we create as many easy-to-use tools to help any brand or business turn their service into an application.”
Nokia is working with a number of beta partners, and a couple of Ovi Apps Wizard-powered apps are already available, from Total Film and Le Monde.
Getting back to those iterative improvements to Ovi Store, though. What's the status with Nokia's plans to launch a whizzy second-generation version of the store, as trailed by another of its media execs, George Linardos, in December?
“All the while there's been this new platform being built in the background, which we'll be talking about in the next couple of months and launching in the Spring with what we're [internally] calling 2.0,” he said at the time. “It's being built from scratch with a few legacy components, which will be phased out over the course of 2.1 and 2.2.”
However, talking to Grech now, it seems there won't now be a 'big bang' Ovi Store 2.0 moment this spring.
“We've already seen massive improvements in terms of user experience, and based on publisher feedback we'll continue iterating the platform,” he says.
“You'll see some excellent new features coming out over this year, especially for certain of our key devices. It's much more evolutionary, and we'll optimise the experience according to the device.”
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