Hands-On with Nokia’s Ovi Store

Yesterday Nokia followed Apple, RIM and Android by launching the Ovi Store application portal for its line of smart and feature phones. The Ovi Store is accessible via the Web at http://store.ovi.com, on your phone as a standalone application (.58MB in size), or via a mobile Web site, and it offers everything from apps to audio and video to games and themes. There are two catches, though: First, it doesn’t work on U.S. branded Nokia phones yet, like the new AT&T E71x (although it does work on unlocked devices like the N85). Second, the Web widely reported a buggy launch day, which we also experienced in brief. We attempted to install the standalone Ovi app from store.ovi.com on our Nokia N85. Before we could download the store, we had to first sign in with our Nokia login information. Thankfully, it accepted the same user name that we had previously setup with the Nokia Messaging app, but we noticed that after a few initial login attempts that it told us to “Try Again Later.” You can install apps by sending them to your phone via the Web or by downloading them from the Ovi App on your phone. You can browse recommended apps or by specific usage (Applications, Games, Audio & Video, Personalization) by using a ribbon based menu bar at the top of the screen. In total, there were 264 “Items” available for our N85, and this includes gimmicky video clips like “Extreme Ski” and Star Trek wallpapers, that should not be counted as apps.  Some existing software, like the Sling Mobile viewer, aren’t available in the store yet, but you can find a few gems like the Twitter “Gravity” app for $9.99. You can also choose to view Paid or Free apps only. We chose the AP News application and were presented with a couple of screen shots, the rating, a description, and reviews. Unfortunately, when we chose to download the application, we had to login again.The Ovi Store should have saved the information we entered when we first logged in, and logging in should be optional. After logging in, installation is a breeze, and the software gives you the option to launch the application or send it to a friend. Our app looked excellent on the N85′s display and it automatically leveraged our location to provide relevant weather data. We noticed that the Ovi Store Web site had a record of our downloaded AP application under a My Stuff tab on the site, and you can choose to rate it from here (0-3 stars).Unfortunately, you can also rate apps before you buy or download them, which is a lesson Nokia should have learned from Apple’s initial problems where users were rating before downloading, causing a slew of apps to have better (or worse) ratings than they deserved. Unlike the BlackBerry App World, though, it’s easy to pay for applications using a credit card. American Express, DinersClub, JCB, Mastercard, and Visa are supported. Despite our login bug and reports of down-time yesterday, the Ovi App store is a move in the right direction for Nokia. But App stores are about content and the Ovi Store, in its current state, is chock full of wallpapers, ring tones, and other less compelling apps that make it inferior to similar offerings from RIM and Apple and even Google’s Android Marketplace. In order to boost the value, Nokia will need to add more apps and filter out those aforementioned software accessories better.