Ovi baked but still cooling down

Late the other evening I took another emotional journey with Nokia’s Ovi Store, the Finnish giant’s answer to the iPhone’s gamechanging original App Store.

It’s a store of applications contained within an application that needs to be downloaded and synchronised to a mobile handset in order to work.

After giving it a brief play around the time of launch, I heard the general industry wail of horror and stepped away. It seemed like most had been scalded by an irresistible morsel Nokia had said was perfectly fine to try, but was still piping hot.

Downloading Ovi

I’d bookmarked the Ovi site on my Nokia E71 handset the first time around, and it was from there that I began again. You could argue that was an error from the outset, and it would have been much easier to configure using the traditional web and the mobile device separately.

This is a mobile solution though, so I should be able to use my device for everything, end to end, right? And the website says it’s easy…

must be a doddle then...

Fairly confident that I’d succeeded in creating an account the first time round, the details appeared to be recognised and allowed me in, which was heartening.

But there were still more username, password, location forms to complete. How boring.

I dutifully tapped away. Then an SMS was automated, requiring navigation away from the site, to the SMS inbox, to open the message, to open it in order synchronise something, which instructed me to select options and save, then tap in a four digit code which had been given on the site.

And then, and then, and then…

Presumably Ovi will soon be pre-installed on new devices, avoiding this clunky mess of a setup. But it’ll be some time before penetration of those devices gain anything approaching iPhone’s current traction.

Finally the Ovi Store application downloaded and installed. The metallic back of my gutsy E71 scorched with a worrying intensity. I could almost feel it thinking really hard about how to do this app store thing and where to put it.

Then I was advised to turn my device off and on again.

What did it look like?

Eventually it appeared, inauspicious in its modest icon of a shopping bag amongst the bank of other installed applications. I fired her up, crossed my fingers, and was presented with the green and white, disarmingly smooth looking Ovi welcome screen.

The interface was encouraging. A simple list format and tabbed organisation of application categories made navigation intuitive enough, and easily identifiable application icons allowed quick access to application synopses, download or purchase options and user reviews – which felt authentic as few were complimentary.

Ovi Screenshot

Could I successfully download anything?

I’ll give the benefit of the doubt to Ovi on speed here, which was probably more down to a sloppy 3G connection than anything else. I opted for the free Star Trek ringtone which tops the Ovi list. If they’ve put it at the top of the list, it must work. The download bar assured me it was thinking about downloading it, and sure enough, in time, it was injected with blue goodness.

So could I find the ringtone easily? Downloading applications with the last generation of handsets could be hampered by a blurry lack of uniformity in user experience when downloading (if you cared enough to reach that stage), and the ease of finding applications once they landed on the handset.

Most device operating systems are so multi-tiered it can be anyone’s guess where the app gets stored. Then you have to remember where it is, and drill down through menus each time you want to use it – which doesn’t exactly incentivise repeat use. Another easy win for the iPhone is its lack of tiers and menus.

After fully downloading, Ovi gave the option to set the Star Trek theme as my ringtone. Erm, no thanks. That appeared to be the only option. Can I at least hear it first please? Apparently not. Where was it saved? Did I care anymore? No.

A news and entertainment aggregation app was more transparent, and downloaded itself alongside the Ovi application itself in my installations menu. It opened easily enough but was still hamstrung by a creaky 3G connection which led to stunted feeling, stop-start navigation.

(A timely reminder of connection speed / bandwidth importance in new technologies. It can massively impact consumer perception of a service through no fault of the service developers.)

The Ovi future…

Ovi should be available to around 50 million global owners of Nokia handsets: a decent reach but still much less than Apple’s share, especially considering relatively weak Nokia penetration in America.

Nokia is playing catch-up and has to start somewhere if it’s to emulate Apple’s success. This isn’t an unmitigated disaster despite the Day One howls, and it’s probably becoming more palatable with each day. Even so, a billion downloads still looks like being some distance away yet.

Related Links
Ovi
A better review than this one