We talked to Nokia about their upcoming OVI Store at Web 2.0 Expo. Nokia told us that it should launch in “early May”. It will be available as a download (a few hundred KBs) for S40 and S60 phones, but first, it will come integrated with the Nokia N97 (and thenwith all S40/S60 phones). The OVI storerepresents the combination of Nokia’s previous efforts like widsets, downloads and so on…
There is a social bias that’snot presentinother stores: your (ovi) friends know what apps you have been downloading and the store will feature different apps, according to your network’s interest – but also according to your geographical location. You can indeed access everything from anywhere, but U.S users, will U.S-centric services, for example.
Nokia has made sure that OVI store is carrier-friendly. Each carrier can tailor a design and feature certain apps (making this a “deals” friendly distribution platform). For users, a unified billing system might reassure those who don’t want to provide their credit card info, or deal with micro-transactions in their statements.
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