Nokia, announced in its bold move that its Ovi services would no longer be associated with it. Ovi services, Nokia’s answer to Apple’s Apple App store made a grand debut in August 2007 with offers of services such as maps, email, apps and music services.
However the OVI brand might be rebranded as Nokia services by July this year. Nokia’s falling market share is a great concern for the Finnish handset maker which dominated the market but has been losing its sheen to local handset makers. Its low presence in the smartphone category is a huge opportunity (too late if we go by some analysts’ views) to regain the supremacy it once enjoyed.
A series of changes are lined up one of which includes outsourcing Symbian software activities to Accenture and subsequent transfer of over 3000 employees for the cause. The rebranding exercise would continue throughout the next year by software upgrades for existing users.
The company believes that the services have become an integral part of the device experience and the focus would be to strengthen the brand popular and loved brand Nokia on the backdrop of its association with Microsoft. The move comes in after the company tightened its screws to go big in the Smartphone segment based on Microsoft Windows Phone OS. It is likely that the European markets would witness the new phone but the timing of the launch is still unknown.
We think this was a good move by Nokia as the OVI services appeared to be sluggish and did not show the simplicity which is generally associated with Nokia cell phones. Hope the new Nokia services are more simple, efficient and as lovable as Nokia has always been.
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About Hitesh Bhasin
