Nokia kills off Ovi

Stuart Corner
Monday, 16 May 2011 22:22

IT Industry - Strategy

Nokia has announced, via a post on its blog, that it will drop the Ovi name for its range of Internet delivered content and services rebranding them as simply Nokia services.

"Starting with first services on some of the new Nokia devices in July and August, Ovi services will be rebranded as Nokia services in a transition expected to continue into 2012," the company said. "Each of the services under the Ovi umbrella will simply be rebranded as Nokia, with no planned disruption to the service roadmaps.

Nokia's EVP and chief marketing officer, Jerri DeVard, said: "By centralising our services identity under one brand, not two, we will reinforce the powerful master brand of Nokia and unify our brand architecture - while continuing to deliver compelling opportunities and experiences for partners and consumers alike."

DeVard added: "Our mobile experiences are tightly integrated with our devices - there is no longer a differentiation'¦These last few years, and moving forward, our mission remains unchanged: we will continue our work to deliver compelling, unified mobile service offerings and next-generation, disruptive technologies."

Nokia stressed that the move was "solely a name-changing exercise and the service roadmaps will continue exactly as planned. The only difference consumers can expect to see is the replacement of the word Ovi with Nokia, not only on their device software but also in other places such as printed material or online media and advertisements."

Nokia introduced Ovi, the Finnish word for 'door', in August 2007 at the same time as it launched the Nokia Music Store and its ill-fated N-Gage gaming devices. "Ovi is the gateway to Nokia's Internet services, including the Nokia Music Store, Nokia Maps, and N-Gage games," Nokia said at the time. "It will also be an open door to web communities, enabling people to access their content, communities and contacts from a single place, either directly from a compatible Nokia device or from a PC."