Please use thread to Comment and Opinion Ovi Store Open 26th May 2009

[ejohn]

Hi folks, Eric here from Ovi Store team. The mobile client is available in English, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. It supports operator billing in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, while credit card billing is available in the United States. Globally, credit card billing is available through the mobile application and the mobile website at store.ovi.com In the the future we'll be adding more countries, languages, devices and features and will keep yo posted via the FN home page, via the newletter and here in the discussion boards. Thanks for all your input! It's extremely helpful! Best - Eric

[jimgilmour1]

There is a good article by Cnet Asia. This is relevant for most countries
Jim

[proberts]

First a congrats to the OVI Store team, who seem to be getting hammered on all sides by comparisons to Apple. People seem to forget that Apple has 1 (halfassed*) "smartphone" to support. After all Nokia really hasn't done this type of thing before (iTunes). The OVI store is a little shaky, but it'll keep getting better.

I like the clean look, very nice. I also like simple interface (before buying or downloading). I was surprised I could send the SMSs to my T-Mobile USA account. Not even Betavine could do that. Congrats. I also like that there aren't 99,900 pieces of shovelware and clones. I hope Nokia will keep OVI like this - more like XBLA instead of the iPhone app store.



However, there are two issues that as a developer keep us from being able to use OVI as our primary download point. I hope these can be addressed and soon:

1) No way to bring up a product directly with a URL (can't link to our products from our website.)

2) Approval process takes weeks. (If we release a launch date, we have no way to know it will be available.)

I have a couple of suggestions that would make OVI a more attractive primary download point for our software:

3) Some way to use an existing product as a template for a new product, or a way to upload something like a PAD file (or custom XML file) for new content items.

4) Videos as part of the product description. Even if it had to be hosted on an external RTSP server or YouTube.

5) A one-click download/buy button for those with an account and credit-card on file.

6) A way to link from one product to another specific product. We have many add-on plug-ins and it would be nice to include a link to the main program from the plug-ins' listings.

Three other suggestions:

Set a cookie to remember my phone choice between OVI Store visits.

Download reporting back up. I liked the by country reporting. This alone would make OVI the most valuable download point for us (if 1 & 2 above could be resolved).

Animated GIF support for the product pages.

I think the OVI Store is going to be a great thing for Nokia and developers.


*If you would like to rebut my iPhone statement, please use your unhacked iPhone to video yourself giving the rebuttal and MMS it to me.

[pjohnsen]

I agree very much with Pat

There is a lot of 'Nokia bashing' going on here, and I think there is no doubt the launch could have gone a lot better, but I am sure the people at Nokia are aware of that by now.

Just to elaborate a bit on the XBLA (XBox Live Arcade). I currently own both a Xbox 360 and a Xii. The X360 market place is a very well polished experience. From the presentation of the different games with screen shots and sometimes a short trailer video, to the try first by later experience .. it all just works really well from an end-user perspective.

The Wii on the other hand has very limited info on the individual game before you have to pay, normally a single screen shot and textual usage manual. I have only purchased games from the online Wii store that I already knew was good, while on XBLA I constantly download new titles and try them out to see if they are any good.

I guess my main point is that XBLA would be a good reference store for Nokia to take a look at

And please try and get a streamline process up for trial versions where users can easily try first and buy later.

[jimgilmour1]

Hi,
Now here a strange thing. Logged in via web on PC and went to "My Stuff".
Only *ONE* item on this list is an item downloaded. The other items have nothing to do with me.
This is a low priority problem, my only question is why. So cant send the link to a friend.

One thing that seems to be happening is that the number in the links has changed and some items when searched no longer exist.

This appears to be another problem with the publisher cache.

UPDATE:
Left the Ovi app site logged in went away from PC. When I came back to the PC Ovi Store login had timed out and logged back in. Now I could see all my downloads plus some other link to other app not downloaded, but been in list since day one.

So some sort of caching problem then ;-)

Jim

[proberts]

...as if I haven't opined enough :P

It would be nice to have an icon or something to if a product is J2ME, Flash, WRT, or Native.

[ori_regev]

My main feedback as a publisher:

1. We love the Ovi concept - it has great potential. Thank you Nokia.

2. The "Item No Longer Available" related problems must be fixed... Please refer to the following threads/posts for more details - if you listen well you can hear the publishers frustration. We, for example, are seriously considering to give up and shut down our publisher account, despite all the efforts we've already invested in this:

http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/fo...d.php?t=169572

http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/fo...d.php?t=168844

http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/fo...d.php?t=169412

http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/fo...d.php?t=169360

http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/fo...d.php?t=169068

http://www.ovigaming.com/news/item/9...orry_this_.php

3. DRM for Java apps is desperately needed. We published our app to Ovi, knowing that anybody can steal it...

4. The communication with publishers can be improved. It's been 13 days since our problems began, but other than getting a (canned?) response that our problem was escalated, we are not able to get any material answer.

Best,
Ori

[Nokia Ron]

1. We love the Ovi concept - it has great potential. Thank you Nokia.

Thanks you

2. The "Item No Longer Available" related problems must be fixed...

I agree, I believe the Ovi team is working on an answer. I will contact them. Feel free to contact me.

Ron

[jimgilmour1]

Hi,
When logging into store via N95 (fw 21.0.x.x or above) a new
"UPDATE TO CLIENT" was found and a new Client was automatically downloaded and installed.

The Search terms "Widget","Strategy","Puzzle","Arcade","Word","Utility",
"Wallpapers"


now appear to work, on any phone
This is for the U.K. country viewing

"Business","Sports,", "Music", "News","Entertainment"

seems to find extra items.

for applications see Ovi store applications
Jim

[tpharaoh]

as a user I was a bit bothered that alot of software which is marked as free, was not. Its ok to pay for it, but I checked their websites and no price was listed, I was no longer interested in a trial.

[erichuang2008]

As a user, you don't need to pay. You just search internet and you can get same FREE items as paid items in Ovi Store. They are FREE! My paid items are marked FREE there sites. Free items are just few clicks away!

as a user I was a bit bothered that alot of software which is marked as free, was not. Its ok to pay for it, but I checked their websites and no price was listed, I was no longer interested in a trial.

[axeljaeger]

As user of an 5800, I would like to save my login during sessions because the store shows applications for some e-serien phone and I have to login everytime again to filter for my phone.