Nokia goes it alone with ‘Ovi’ line of services

Nokia Corp. outlined a surprisingly aggressive direct-to-consumer strategy comprising music, games, maps and social-networking offerings across both PCs and mobile phones.
The manufacturer introduced Ovi-which means “door” in the Finnish company’s native tongue-at its Nokia Go Play event in London this morning. The portal will serve as a gateway to Nokia services as well as a storefront for full-track music downloads, online communities and games from the company’s resuscitated N-Gage platform.
“The industry is converging towards Internet-driven experiences, and Ovi represents Nokia’s vision in combining the Internet and mobility,” said CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. “Looking into the future, we will deliver great devices, combined with compelling experiences and services, to make it easy for people to unlock the potential of the Internet.”
Nokia’s long-awaited music store initially will launch “across key European markets this fall,” offering full-track downloads for a relatively competitive $1.37 per track, or $13.70 for a full album. The service, which will be available initially to users with the Nokia N81 and Nokia N95 8GB model, will also include a streaming radio option for PCs for $13.70 a month.
The offering does not, however, include an over-the-air download component.
The handset maker also announced a November coming-out for N-Gage, expanding the brand from a single, gaming-focused mobile phone to a platform for games across mobile devices. N-Gage, which will also fall under the Ovi umbrella, will include a downloadable application for PCs and mobile phones, and eventually be embedded on some Nokia devices.
Games will be available for free trials and will sell for between $8 and $14 each; Nokia said it will also sell gaming subscriptions.
Shares of Nokia jumped $1.76, or nearly 6%, to $31.77 following the announcement.
The far-reaching effort largely stems from Nokia’s recent spending spree. The company last year bought Loudeye Corp., a digital music provider, for $60 million, and last month Nokia acquired social networking company Twango for a reported $100 million. And Nokia’s navigational offerings are powered in part by gate5, a German developer of location-based technology that Nokia purchased for an undisclosed sum.
“We started this journey with our navigation services earlier this year and we are now combining all our services into a single branded offering,” Kallasvuo said. “Over the coming 12 months, you will see us integrate new user interface elements, service suites and Web communities to Ovi.”
The coming months could also see substantial backlash from carriers, though, who are increasingly nervous about losing their grip on mobile users. Such concerns led to the demise of Club Nokia, a direct-to-consumer mobile content play that was shuttered two years ago.
Nokia has continued to work to present its offerings directly to mobile users, however, without the assistance of carriers. The company has opened a line of “flagship” retail stores in shopping destinations such as Moscow and New York, and last year Nokia teamed with Turner Broadcasting to offer content from the Cartoon Network to users in the United States and Europe.