Weekly Task 4

OVI.com by Nokia

1.       The concept of Nokia’s OVI, seems like a great idea. Photo sharing, video sharing, file sharing are all possible to do with friends and family, and even anyone on the internet who cares. This brings out a ‘Social Networking’ aspect to the concept as well. Also there is no space limitation which is great as well.

Ovi Maps is a great tool as well. Points of interest, business name search, advanced address search, and favorites are all great aspects of the GPS system. You can save points of interest to your favorites so you don’t have to type it in every time, and then even send them to friends. The GPS system also has a good display, and looks very clean.

Also you can save your contacts to the OVI, and not to the SIM card, so you can transfer them easily in case your phone breaks, or you buy a new one. The calendar is accessible through both PC and Mobile device, and syncs easily, which means you can easily edit it and view from both.

It sounds all nifty and dandy, but is it all that great. Compared to the iPhone, or blackberry, I think that that the OVI suite is pretty basic. It will be successful for Nokia until they come out with something new, but other suites for other brand phones are defiantly better. And who wants Nokia anymore, iPhone 4, Blackberries, and HTC’s are HOT now. Unfortunately I still have my Nokia, and honestly I didn’t like the OVI suite, at all.

2.       It is a great platform to win some money in actually. The ‘Calling All Innovators’ contest for example is a contest for creating Apps on Maps. iPhone is defiantly more successful in the third party development, which is one of the aspects for its great success, compared to Nokia. However there is one huge, huge downside: NO MAC SUPPORT! Good luck for Mac users and developers.

3.       Nokia’s new strategy puts it in competition with the best on the market names, such as iPhone, HTC, Blackberry, etc. It is defiantly a well needed change if it still wants to compete and keep its name in the market. Smart phones currently being developed and innovated at a great rate, and Nokia needs something new to compete.

4.       Nokia’s acquisition of Navteq is a strive for gaining control of the navigation market. Nokia has been trying to evolve into a web service company, optimized for mobility. This move could make it into a navigation service powerhouse. It also gives leverage over Google, Yahoo, and MSN for example, since they all use Navteq for mapping information.

Anssi Vanjoki quotes:

“We want to make using your mobile for navigation as familiar as using it to send a text or take a picture. We believe that making the best maps with voice guided navigation available for free will be the catalyst to do this. Why have multiple devices that only work in one country or region? Put it all together, make it free, make it global and you have something that is truly useful and can help you get round almost any city in the world whether you’re on foot or driving.”

This is a great marketing strategy and hopefully will help out Nokia in the long run.