14 DAY TRIAL // Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia announced recently that it planned to stop investments in the media sharing site Ovi Share, as part of the already announced switch in service focus and development. The site was opened to the world last year at the MWC show, and was developed following the company's acquisition of the U.S. firm Twango in 2007.
It seems that the world's largest mobile phone maker will still keep Ovi Share running, though it intends to make no further enhancements to it: “Ovi Share ... is planned to be maintained in its current state,” a spokesperson with the company is reported to have stated recently. About two weeks ago, Nokia said that it planned to leave aside some of the projects it was involved in, as a result of the economical slowdown.
According to some analysts, the company would be making this move due to the low traction its services have seen on the market, which is mainly driven by the strong competition they see from already popular sites like Picasa, Flickr or Facebook. At the same time, Nokia is reported to plan on relying more on third-party services, though other projects are also in the works.
One of these projects would be the opening of its Ovi Store, which is expected to kick off in late spring with around 20,000 apps available at launch. Launching a software portal will align the company with other industry players that already have their own such stores in a trend started by Apple last year with its App Store. The upcoming Nokia N97 flagship device is expected to have the Ovi Store pre-loaded, and future Nokia handsets should also include it.
The application store should offer the mobile phone maker the possibility to boost its revenues, and also help it compensate for the lower demand it has seen on the market. Those who use Ovi Share will probably not be too happy with the news, yet it’s a good thing that the company will keep the site up and running, for things might change in the future and it could reconsider this decision.