Now that Ovi Store has been up and running for a couple of weeks, I’d like to share some initial results from a content and usage perspective. We’ve been hard at work since we first opened our doors, adding more content every day and optimizing the experience with the release of a new Ovi Store client that has incorporated your feedback. We’ve also launched the Nokia N97 as the first device with Ovi Store inside. In the midst of all this, I wanted to take a moment to share some things that I am extremely proud of regarding the Ovi Store roll out as well as provide you with some updates on content in the store.
First off all, our “thanks!” to all the Ovi Store users who have visited and used the store over the last two weeks. We are working very diligently to make the store available to everyone. Thus far we have:
• users from 152 countries around the world
• support for more than 75 Nokia devices
• integrated mobile billing with 27 operators globally
• localized the store in 5 different languages
And….downloads have exceeded our expectations! Since launch, our users have made the Applications category the #1 spot for free items, while the Games category now holds the #1 spot for premium content.
You may wonder, what application has been downloaded the most times? Well… that would be “Digital Alarm Clock” of course! with its retro-green digital interface that lights up your nightstand.
What application is the current highest seller? That would be our beloved, full-featured Twitter client, Gravity.
In fact, we’re finding most of the top applications across all 152 countries are applications that offer messaging solutions like Twitter, Facebook & SMS apps.
Speaking of countries, the top countries in terms of download #’s are (in alphabetical order): Germany, Italy, Spain, UK & USA.
That’s all the updates we have for now, but we’d love to hear your comments and suggestions. Let us know what kind of information you’d like to see in future! (top 10 apps? staff picks? new hottness?)
Thanks! – Eric & Ovi Store Team http://store.ovi.com
The digital alarm clock link is pointing to a paid version . Is there a separate version out there ?
What happened to Widsets? It says it was ‘evolved’ into Ovi store. Not a single one of the apps I was using is on Ovi Store. Not a single news service. Nothing. Plus the x 100000 other apps that were available, all gone. 833 units on the Ovi store, I’m sure you have a market for your wallpapers etc, but what happened to the Widsets???
So I’m asking. How do you dare to use this word evolve? Widsets was a great service, now it is destroyed and replaced by a run of the mill nothing service.
Shame on you.
Your Ovi website is _terrible_. It does not work.
I could not log in.
I could not create a new account.
Banners drew over text entry fields.
I entered the CAPTCHA at least 10 times–it is broken.
Wow. Just wow. I can’t comment on the contents of the Ovi site, as it was impossible for me to access the site. Feel free to contact me if you need any further information. Does anyone test your websites?
I’m on Mac OSX 10.5.7, using a Camino browser, if it makes any difference to you.
You’ve really got to do better than this!
OVI Team, great work and keep up the progress, I can see definate improvement.
I would like you to publish weekly chart of top 10 apps, best review written by user and spotlight on new apps/games/content.
Hey Nokia…nice job..
I’m from Brazil, and this apps you guys mentioned are not available…why is that??
How do I delete Ovi from my phone? I used to use MOSH all the time. Can I re-install it so it works again? If not, can I return my phone as it’s not doing what I bought it to do?
Don’t know if its a regional thing, but Ovi Store in the US is showing Digital Alarm Clock as a paid app for $2 dollars rather than free. Either way, its a great application which I have already purchased last week. Great to know that it’s been one of the popular apps on ovi store.
I have a correction (thanks Kashif and kiyo21) The number #1 freebie is the Star Trek ringtone. Will make that change shortly. Also (Isreal), not all apps are available in every market. It sometimes takes a while for developers to get through all their translations
Niko, thanks for sharing your thoughts on Widsets. Developers have been busy creating new widgets for Ovi store using Nokia’s Web Run time which makes it pretty easy to create widgets using standard web technologies. There’s some pretty good News and Info widgets on Store. See if the Associated Press or Reuters widgets work for you. There’s new widgets being added all the time. If you’re inspired with a cool idea for a new widget, be sure to enter it in the Nokia N97 widget contest at http://tinyurl.com/ls3cfr You could win an N97 with your custom widget built for you and made available for download on Ovi Store. Best – Eric
You have a pretty massive failure on your client’s purchase confirmation screen (at least on S40 client and 5220 xpressmusic phone). You have some usability guys there, right?
When I click the “Buy” button and go to purchase confirmation screen, the title saying “Confirm purchase” is EXACTLY the same color that focused buttons have in the client. Same time, the button (Change payment method) that is focused is barely visible at the bottom of the screen (only couple lines of pixels). This gives an impression that your purchase is ready to be confirmed and it’s just one click away because “Confirm purchase” is focused -> I click and it opens the payment method selection screen -> confusion.
Ok, I know that now after two purchases. But what makes it really bad thing is that if it’s your first time and you got no credit card details added, the same confirmation screen appears after you have entered your credit card information. Then again, same thing -> you think that you’re confirming your purchase and it opens the payment method screen again. People will think what happened now? Did it charge something from the credit card or what?
BTW. I’m writing this here, because I didn’t find any feedback form from the store itself…
PS. About WidSets.. the great thing in the old WidSets client was the extreme easiness of creating widsets. And of course the fact that they were free to publish. Tell me who on earth wants to pay all the publisher costs of making a widget out of some rss feed for example.
Eric and the team, great job on the launch and I am looking forward to seeing the store grow as more Nokia users adopt to it.
Perhaps Nokia hasn’t received the credit it deserves for such undertaking. The logistics of launching Ovi Store in so many countries are simply huge. It was expected to have some teething problems.
Nevertheless, if Ovi Store wants to overtake competitors it has to provide a flawless experience. One hint to the designers: stick to browser-agnostic features and standards! It is imperative. (I’m talking about full-blown PC version I’m browsing right now)
I want to see the Ovi Store pass smoothly to HTML5 while using the latest ECMAScript. All good browsers support these latest technologies and you can do pretty fancy things with them without using Flash or other proprietary stuff.
hey~ what’s wrong with the facebook application for n97?!
“Item unavailable
Sorry, this item is no longer available.”??!
i have uninstalled my build-in facebook and need to re-install it again
could you guys just fix it before i feel disappointed with the N97?
thanks~!
The link to Digital Alarm Clock is not correct in the post (it goes to the N97 movie).
The link to DAC should be:
http://store.ovi.com/content/69C5EC57F98CD9BEE040050A87325122
Keep up the good work and ignore those kids posting “shame on you” type of comments (a bit of class would be nice, fellow commenters). Now, obviously Ovi has ways to go, but I for one am willing to give a good few months to get fully up and running.
In terms of the info we would like to see: well, obviously the total downloads numbers are what everyone would like to see, but I also realise you will not release them until there is some really impressive number so that it will not rediculed by all the Apple fans out there (note: nothing wrong with being an Apple fan!).
Another suggestion: I’ve seen that at least on the desktop version N Gage games are being added; it would be great if the next update of the Client would have a sub-gategory of “N Gage games” under Games.
A bug to report: on my N82 here in the US, when I make a search, after the first search the cursor gets stuck and I cannot perform another search. Also, it shows on all screens blinking in the background. EDIT: now that I tried it does not happen again.. go figure
Suggestion on the “search” dialogue. When I go to the search window, the cursor is not on the search entry, but on the “header” and I have to click down to get to the search window. Please try to eliminate all such unnecessary clicks.
Very disappointed that Widsets have been closed down & seemingly gone forever. I also believed that the widsets would be available in the new ovi store. Nothing that come from Nokia said that the widsets wouldn’t be available, only that your login would no longer work & that widsets would “evolve” into the new ovi store. I really liked widsets & I hope they will be available again soon, they were one of the better apps Nokia produced.
Where are the widgets from widsets? I can’t find a single item.
I wish there are explanation to this otherwise this whole change SUCKS!
how do i delete the ovi store though?? help help!!!
The store is looking good and working well. Once glaring omission I’ve noticed is that searching for “weather” produces no dedicated weather application results. I’d expect at least the AccuWeather widget that is in the Download! service to be available (can’t seem to find the WeatherBug widget anymore). Same goes for Stocks.
Also please don’t forget us 3rd edition users, I’m really hoping there will be a Facebook app for my N85.
Eric John:
It appears you are responsible for media (music and videos). I have always used Nokia phones and love them including the 5800. Our company has a large music and video (movie) catalog that we would like to work with someone, like your company to offer them in MP3 and MP4 formats.
If you can send me your email I will attach both of our catalogs. We know that Itunes tends to be the leader in downloads, but there is no reason Nokia can’t be just as big. I know distribution is larger internationally then in the USA.
If you would like feel free to call me at 763 300-3718. We are looking for a mobile phone company we can work with as having as large a catalog as we do, that portable audio and video is a market that is growing.
I look forward to your response.
Ovi store is lagging far behind the App store and every other store in my opinion.
Whats up with the pricing of all applications and things? £6.00 for bog standard java games and useless applications is a joke.
developers need to be encouraged to create fun, useful, yet simple apps and games such as Apple’s. These are only 69p and very minimal prices if not free.
if this isn’t accomished within the next couple months im sure many people will be uninstalling Ovi Store from their devices.
No way of following Ovi store news on twitter?
Big fan of the store so far, looking forward to the exponentional growth I know we’re going to see. But…
Could you please allow us to re-download apps we have already paid for? This is a real disappointment when there’s an accidental deletion. It can obviously be tied to account and even to device if you want to be a bit stingy about things, but please this is crazy that it cannot be done.
Hey Nokia : – Where can I find my apps used in Widsets ???
Cade meus apps do Widsets ????
Widsets and widgets? Very handy stuff working perfectly but no more.
I think ‘evolve’ is a bit strong promise whitout any further information.
Lack of basic business communication skills I would say.
Perhaps telling when to expect ‘evolved’ version or have a guts to tell that W’s are burried forever would be in place.
ICT=I Can’t Tell?
Pretty good post. I just came by your site and wanted to say
that I’ve really liked reading your posts. Anyway
I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon!
Guys lots of people is expectant about the OVI store, and you don’t make a single post in a week?! come on! keep us informed of what’s going on? People just interpret that as “nothing is going on”
so where can I find some of the widsets things I liked? The only option seems to bookmark the sites on the browser and forget the ovi thing. Please tell me…
Ovi Store team, there is a LOT of complaints on any given phone forum about not being able to reload an already purchased app e.g. after a reset of a phone. You HAVE GOT TO come out with an official Nokia position on this – no matter what it is. You have to provide an explanation of the situation, no matter how grim it may be for power users for keep chaning phones, resetting them etc., but you have to do it for your own PR sakes. And do it FAST.
When will you give download/sales numbers to developers? It has been more than a month since OVI Store launched, and still there is no information in the reports tab.
I keep getting bugs – sorry guys, ovi is no good experience at all!
Right on the frontpage: faultCode:Client.CouldNotDecode faultString:’Error #1090′ faultDetail:’null’
All, Our thanks for sharing your feedback and thoughts on Ovi Store. Your comments on the user experience and specific bugs are being addressed and prioritized. We’re also updating our feedback loop so it will be easier to post a suggestion or a bug fix directly within the user experience. We’ll have more specifics on that soon. In the meantime, please know that our teams in engineering and product are working night and day on these updates. See below for follow-up on specific posts. Thx – Eric
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koivar June 18, 2009 at 2:52 pm RE: Usability of OviStore purchase confirmation screens You have a pretty massive failure on your client’s purchase confirmation screen (at least on S40 client and 5220 xpressmusic phone). You have some usability guys there, right?
> Koiva, Thanks for your note. I’ve passed your detailed comments to our usability team. On the WidSets front, have you tried creating a widget in Web Run Time? (allows you to use standard web technologies including HTML, CSS and JavaScript)? It’s pretty easy. For more info, check out the Forum Nokia Tutorial at http://www.forum.nokia.com/Technology_Topics/Web_Technologies/Web_Runtime/
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14 Viipottaja > June 19, 2009 at 3:33 am RE: Keep up the good work. / info we would like to see: total downloads numbers / desktop version N Gage games are being added; it would be great if the next update of the Client would have a sub-gategory of “N Gage games” under Games. / bug to report: on my N82 here in the US, when I make a search, after the first search the cursor gets stuck and I cannot perform another search.
>> Regarding the suggestion for the N-Gage category in Games. This is a great idea. We’re continuing to look at ways to optimize these categories including how we highlight the N-Gage games. We’ll keep you posted on this. In terms of developer reports, if you’re a registered publisher keep an eye out for an email which will offer a link to reports support materials. In terms of the search (the “header” and I have to click down to get to the search window). This issue is high on the list, and should be fixed shortly.
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12 Herman June 18, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Re: Facebook application for n97?! “Item unavailable>
>>The standalone Facebook app for Nokia N97 is being working on. It will be ready soon. We will be sure to announce when it’s available.
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15 Dazza >>June 19, 2009 at 11:56 am >> Very disappointed that Widsets have been closed down
>> Thanks Dazza, we’re in the process of adding more WidSets widgets into the Store. Which one was your favorite? Let us know and will check the status. If it was a widget you created yourself using the WidSets platform, going forward we will not be supporting user created Widgets via WidSets. If you’re a developer and want to create and publish a Widget in Store you can use Web Run Time to create the file using standard web technologies and then package the file as a .SISX. Go to Forum Nokia http://forum.nokia.com and search “Web Run Time” for more information.
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Rode, June 19, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Where are the widgets from widsets? I can’t find a single item.
>> see above post on WidSets. If there was a specific WidSet widget you’re missing let us know and we’ll find out whether it’s in the process of being ported to the new Web Run time platform for use on S60.
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17 Chrissie June 19, 2009 at 4:25 pm
how do i delete the ovi store though?? help help!!!
>>f you have a S60 device – and you’ve downloaded Ovi Store you can find the file in the “installations” directory Highlight the file, choose “options” and then click “remove”, In Series 40 devices you locate the file via Menu, again highlight the file, choose options and then choose delete.
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18 BellPepper June 19, 2009 at 6:15 pm
The store is looking good and working well. Once glaring omission I’ve noticed is that searching for “weather” produces no dedicated weather application results. I’d expect at least the AccuWeather widget
Also please don’t forget us 3rd edition users, I’m really hoping there will be a Facebook app for my N85.
>> Hi BellPepper (great user name!) Try searching for “weather”. The Weatherbug widget should be there, Try this URL http://tinyurl.com/ktes4f
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19 David Hersk June 20, 2009 at 1:08 am Eric John: It appears you are responsible for media (music and videos). Our company has a large music and video (movie) catalog that we would like to work with someone, like your company to offer them in MP3 and MP4 formats.
>> Hi David, a followup to our recent chat. If you have ringtones or music videos you’d like to publish, be sure to register first at publish.ovi.com and the folks there can help you with next steps.
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20 dan June 20, 2009 at 2:49 pm Ovi store is lagging far behind the App store and every other store in my opinion. Whats up with the pricing of all applications and things? £6.00 for bog standard java games and useless applications is a joke.
>> Hi Dan, Thanks for your note on this. Ovi store does not set the prices for content, our publishers do. As publishers start to see what’s selling and at what price, I expect there may be optimizations in the future.
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21 Santi June 21, 2009 at 4:52 pm No way of following Ovi store news on twitter?
>> You can follow Ovi Store on Twitter. Go to http://www.twitter.com and search for Ovi Store. The user is @ovistore.
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22 Martin June 22, 2009 at 1:44 am Big fan of the store so far, looking forward to the exponentional growth I know we’re going to see. But… Could you please allow us to re-download apps we have already paid for? This is a real disappointment when there’s an accidental deletion.
>> we hear you on this. Please follow-up with Customer Care on this at https://www.ovi.com/services/support/care?id=services_support_care.
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23 gilson June 22, 2009 at 5:57 am Hey Nokia: – Where can I find my apps used in Widsets ???
>> Which branded WidSet widget are you looking for?
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24 Pietari June 23, 2009 at 1:20 am Widsets and widgets? Very handy stuff working perfectly but no more. I think ‘evolve’ is a bit strong promise whitout any further information.
>>Pietari, Sorry you were caught off guard on the WidSets move. Our strategy is to bring together the various content experiences (Download!, WidSet, MOSH) into a unified whole. We expect more of the WidSets content to be living in Ovi Store soon. Let us know what widgets you’d like to see and I’ll raise it up to our content teams.
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26 Santi June 24, 2009 at 7:58 pm Guys lots of people is expectant about the OVI store, and you don’t make a single post in a week?! come on! keep us informed of what’s going on? People just interpret that as “nothing is going on”
>> Santi, Thanks for your note. Will try to do better on the frequency of posts.
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27 Viipottaja June 28, 2009 at 12:01 am
Ovi Store team, there is a LOT of complaints on any given phone forum about not being able to reload an already purchased app e.g. after a reset of a phone. You HAVE GOT TO come out with an official Nokia position on this – no matter what it is.
>>If you as an Ovi Store customer encounter a problem with your device that requires the device to be reformatted (reflashed), resulting in the loss of your purchased content, you should contact Customer Care and they’ll follow-up with you on the best options to address this. The link to Customer Care is https://www.ovi.com/services/support/care?id=services_support_care.
I’m still waiting for the Ovi Store to have some useful apps. I see commercials for the iPhone with the premise “Imagine you want to … [such as identify a songbird, calculate a restaurant tip, use the phone as a leveler, or some other everyday task]” and I’m disappointed that Nokia’s Ovi Store offers very few useful applications. I was expecting an iPhone Apps Store-esque experience that would pretty much turn my Nokia into an anything machine that also happens to make phone calls. What’s worse is that all the pre-launch press touted this as the ‘largest app store launch ever’, etc.etc. Nokia, please do more to get developers excited about Ovi Store so that we can get some decent offerings (wall papers, a hundred-thousand ‘Twitter’ apps and movie video clips do not count.)
Cannot login to store.ovi.com, but can login to http://www.ovi.com.
Timezone GMT+2, at 7:00 PM
Same username and password used as in http://www.ovi.com.
The message that is given on store.ovi.com follows:
“Sorry, you cannot sign in at this time. Try again later.”
Been giving that for 10mins already.
Wonder what maybe wrong what I did?
Cheers,
Snowster
How many free and paid apps are available in ovi store? Why is it impossible to purchase paid applications thru web site?
Eric, wow, thanks for all the responses! Hopefully Customer Care can help folks, but I suspect (in fact, I am 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999%
) sure that this will not be enough to calm down all the angry bloggers, twitterers etc. that are already campaigning against the Ovi Store almost solely on this thing alone. I hope a more convenient solution could be found, e.g. through tracking of a purchasers IMEI number or some such solution that would allow the user to reload and simply key in a registration number, without having to go through your Customer Care service (which MANY people will have difficulty even finding, I suspect).
Anyway, keep up the good work and make it better!
Why does the desktop access accept my username and password but the phone based one refuses. No matter what browser I use, it makes o difference.
Also, if I log in via desktop and send myself link via sms, why do I have to enter I’d info again especially when it always fails? Do you really need multiple levels of security for this service?
Thanks for your reply Eric. The great thing about widsets was so many were available, and you could create them yourself easily from just an rss feed. The ones I used off the top of my head were:
Facebook, Dilbert, accuWeather, planetRugby, eBay, Toronto Maple Leafs etc etc
Its seems rather silly that Nokia had a popular app with thousands of widgets already created (& there were thousands), and now its completely gone. It would have made far more sense just to make the widsets available again in the new ovi store, even if we all had to recreate a login etc.
It might take years to recover that number of widgets. In the meantime the Palm Pre & iPhone are tailor made for such applications.
How can I download? Am registered on the website, get the message with the weblink from the store, and then cannot log in via the phone to the website to do the actual download….. it keeps telling me that there is something wrong with user-id and/or password. Now, I will be honest, I do make the occasional typo – but not four times in a row when I am logging on! So, what is gong wrong?
@ Eric – As an N97 owner I’m really hoping that the Ovi Store will succeed. Thankfully I think you have a good base and I have noticed some good apps slowly starting to appear (mippin widgets, Offscr apps, etc…). I’m pretty sure this will start to speed up as developers realise the potential for sales.
In relation to your response regarding re-downloading purchased apps. My first purchase on the Ovi Store resulted in a failed download. The first thing that I did was contact support via the link at the top of the page. I promptly received an automated message but 8 days later have still not heard anything from customer support. In the end I submitted a post on the Nokia discussion forums and eventually got some assistance from the Ovi Store team. I know there are going to be teething problems but this process was convoluted, unintuitive, frustrating, and it took too long. If I had the ability to re-download I could have solved my problem within a few minutes not seven days.
As Viipottaja stated, Nokia needs to come out with a position on this feature. Good or bad it needs to be stated to manage the perception of the Ovi Store. Please note that I for one would be very hesitant to purchase apps from the Ovi Store if I have to go through that process again to get my purchased apps restored.
P.S. The device support for the N97 under Ovi support is broken.
Would luv too see an ebay and bebo application and a different weather app that can be used on the home page accu doesnt seem to work anywhere in scotland!!!
Thanks for article. Everytime like to read you.
Bodyc
I agree with some of the other people posting: Ovi is a nice idea, but it’s still very very thin. Before you roll out to various languages, can you consolidate and offer some serious applications in just one language. And have a website that works? I think that’s the single most important thing.
Everything else can entirely wait.
Hans
Ovi store login has not worked for over a week. Using the built in web browser, Skyfre, or any browser on my PC.
When I enter my credentials to log in, message saying the authentication system is down and to try later.
I have to agree with the criticism above, although not in such harsh words. Nokia developers have put in a great amount of work and acomplished a lot. It just seems that the project management has gone astray as the Ovi store is sub standard to all the other app stores out there. Product was delivered incomplete and with poor initial content. There were many more useful applications before OVI store existed than there are right now, weeks after ovi rollout. Errors everywhere and it takes forever to correct them.
The whole experience is very similar to working with open source development management.
The ovi store is great progress in Nokia’s market alignment, but good enough from a big resource rich company that we all pay good money to use their products.
Regards,
Sead
Hi team, what happend with facebook application? I search on ovi store and it show me item don´t available. Why you removed it?? please help me I need there application. I bought the nokia 5800 just for this application. Regards
hi im having the same problem as sead. I can log on but when i click on download it says the autherisation system is down and try later. It has been like this for 2 or 3 months now. Please help! before this happened ovi was great but now its just fustrating!