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Redownload for Store: Easier to Restore Lost Content to Your Nokia Device

Published
by
michael bramlage
on October 28, 2009
in Ovi by Nokia
. 14 Comments

I’m pleased to share the news that we’ve made redownloading of premium content available for Store users. Redownloading is as simple as it sounds – it lets Ovi Store users, who previously purchased and downloaded content to their device, to redownload, recover, and restore the content in the event that something happens to it. Think of it as content insurance.

Every day, millions of users from more than 180 countries, using a wide range of Nokia devices have discovered, purchased, and downloaded cool new apps and games, like Shazam, Gravity, and Pac-Man (my personal favorite) from the Store. They use these apps and games to enhance their lives—to discover new music, to stay in touch with their friends and followers, or to simply entertain themselves and pass the time by playing a classic arcade game. However, as with any digital content, there is the risk of loss or breakage. Was the file downloaded properly? Did you lose your network connection while downloading? Was the content accidentally deleted? Did a software update render the content incompatible? Did you reset your device? All of these events can occur, and can make it challenging for you to enjoy the wide range of apps, games, ringtones, podcasts, and video clips from Ovi Store.

With this latest Store release, we’ve added a simple way for you to restore content that you purchased and downloaded through Store to your device. We take very seriously the fulfillment of content that is acquired through the Store, and while we can’t prevent certain events that may cause damage or the loss of content, we can make it easier for you to re-acquire it. Please watch this short tutorial below to learn more about how to redownload previously purchased content.

As the tutorial explains, if you use the Store through our mobile client application, you’ll be required to upgrade to the newest version on S60 devices—look for version 1.5(387) or higher—and on Series 40 devices—look for version 1.6.1 or higher—to take advantage of redownloading. The latest version of Ovi store for S60 devices is rolling out now while the Series 40 version will begin rolling out at the end of this week. If you receive a prompt to update your client, please accept it!

If you shop the Store through our mobile web site at store.ovi.com on your Nokia mobile browser, the feature is enabled today.

And regardless of how you shop the Store, we will honor purchases made before this new version, so if you purchased the BlockGO game in August and it didn’t download properly, give it another shot by visiting the My Stuff section of the store.

We hope content redownloading will improve the way you use and enjoy content acquired through the Store by providing a simple, easy, and no-hassle way to make you and your content whole again.

- Michael

PS: We also updated our search experience, making it easier to access what you’re looking for across our entire content catalog. We highly value your feedback, so let us know what you think.

Serving up content that’s right for you

Published
by
michael bramlage
on August 31, 2009
in Ovi by Nokia
. 10 Comments
Michael on the mount

Michael on the mount

Hi, my name is Michael Bramlage and I head up Product Management for Ovi Store.  I recently joined Nokia, having made a cross-country trek from Seattle to New York City. 

As a newcomer to the city, I ‘ve been impressed with the fact that the city has something for everyone.  This is most evident when you go shopping.  Whether you’re strolling the high-end luxury retailers on Fifth Avenue in Midtown, grabbing groceries at the Fairway market on the Upper West Side, or hunting for bargains at Century 21 down in the Financial District, if you want something, the city’s got it. 

However, on a recent walk through the city I became overwhlmed by “choice overload.”  If you multiply all the products across all the stores in New York City, you wind up with tens of millions of choices. How do I find what’s right for me?

This is an interesting challenge that we’re tackling here on the Store team.  We call it “relevance” and it’s focused on ensuring that visitors to the Store get connected with the content that matters most to them. 

 For Store, the first step involves filtering the right content for the right user based on two important factors: the visibility rules of the content and the unique characteristics of the customers, namely their country, language, and device. 

In terms of device, not all content works on the range of approximately 100 devices that Store supports.  For example, the new Compass Touch app from Nimbuzz, that allows you to access the device magnetometer and use your N97 as a compass, isn’t designed to work on the Nokia N95 8G (a non-touch device).  In this case, Store filters out this application for people using the N95 8G.  The goal is to show only what works for you and your device. Imagine for instance, walking into a shoe store and all shoes that weren’t your size were already removed from the store shelves, or going into a department store and all they carried were clothes that fit you right. How cool would that be?     

In terms of geography, not all content is available globally.  While we’d love for all users to get to all the content we have in our catalog, Store must honor the legal rights of publishers and ensure that content is served only to consumers in those countries that publishers have designated for delivery. Global rights are a rarity in the publishing world and the same rules apply in the mobile content space as well.            

Now, we’ve been tinkering in our R&D labs on a few improvements to how we handle these scenarios on our web site: http://store.ovi.com.  Just this week we made a change to how the site handles visitors that link directly to content available in the Store, like the incredibly fun Tower Bloxx game http://tinyurl.com/lkryy5.  The change is designed to provide clear messaging to notify users when the visibility rules of particular content don’t match the particular users’ detected country, language, and device.  And if we don’t know your device, please tell us on store.ovi.com – it’s like telling Levi’s your jean size when you walk into the store!

There are many more improvements like this coming very soon.  Please stay tuned. 

-Michael