3 Months & 10 Million Downloads Later, Where is the Ovi Store at?
The announcement I had been looking forward to the Nokia World for was the Ovi Store download statistics. Though it was not announced on the stage, Kai Oistamo, Nokia’s EVP of Devices let the numbers out in a call with a few North American reporters. So the numbers are finally out, and they are nowhere near what most of the people had expected.In the 3 months since Ovi Store launched and was available to the public, users have downloaded a little over 10 million pieces of content and applications. This combined with the claims by Nokia that an average user has done 6 downloads from the store, gives us a figure of round about 1.67 million users using the Ovi Store. Considering Nokia’s worldwide presence and that the Store supports over a 100 different devices, the numbers seem pretty disappointing. Another statistic available to use was that the store saw a 50% increase in the number of downloads between July & August.
One of the reasons for the abysmal number of downloads is the availability of the store out of the box. The client is not preloaded on the phones . Except for the Nokia N97, no other device shipped with the Ovi Store client pre-installed on the phone. Even with the N97, the first firmware included only a shortcut to the client setup, which meant a user would first have to download the client before he could use it. On all the other phones, there isn’t even an shortcut or bookmark to guide the user to the store. Users would have to manually visit the store to download the client onto their phone. In some countries & on some phones, the Downloads! app on the phone (which has now been replaced by the Ovi Store) features the Ovi Store client download. But why is this limited to a few countries is not known. Even the recently launched Nokia N86 did not ship with the Ovi Store client pre-installed. What is even more surprising is that the client is not even compatible with the N86, and even after a firmware update, users are still waiting for the Ovi Store client compatibility. Steve Litchfield, in his review of the E55 mentions that “Also hinting that the current v21 firmware is incomplete is that the Ovi Store client and the N-Gage client were also missing from the E55…Oh, and there’s no Ovi Store download link yet within Download!” Steve has also pointed out that the reason Ovi Store is not compatible with E55, E52, N86 & probably E72 too is because of the updated Web Browser. Apparently, the Ovi Store client has some issues with the new browser.
The cost of getting the content published to the store. A store is only as good as its content. If you make publishing the content into the store expensive, It can do no good to the variety of content available in the store. A developer has to purchase 2 different certificates which could cost upto $300 and every time an applications is signed for the store, that costs another $20. This high cost of entry proves to be a major barrier for developers developing free applications. Things get even difficult if you wish to get your themes published to the store, as only “Premium Publishers” are eligible to get their themes published on the store.
There is no option to Try before you Buy. The store only supports two kinds of downloads – Free download or a Paid download. A user does not have the option to try out the applications before he can make a decision on whether he wishes to buy it. Few developers are getting around this barrier by introducing “lite” versions of their applications / games which are nothing but a time limited trial or a feature curtailed demo of the app.
A lengthy procedure to re-download the content. What do you do after you have just reset your phone. Fire up the store, login to your account & download the content you have already paid for and are entitled to. Sound simple and fair enough, right? But that is not something the Ovi Store will let you do. They offer you a personalised service. All you need to do is mail the support guys, explain to them that you reset your phone because of some issue with the beta firmware the phones ship with now a days, and wait for them to help your out with the re-download. Time frame? Anything over 3 days. Why all this fuss when all you should be required to do is login to your account on the client and simply re download the content once the store has cross checked the handset via the IMEI number!
The future is not entirely gloomy or doomed though, changes & improvements are expected to hit the store soon.
Mobile Entertainment is reporting that Try and Buy is coming soon to the Ovi Store. According to Marco Argenti, Nokia’s head of media and games, “The first new business model that we’re going to launch is try-and-buy. It has already been tested in some of our preloaded games, and we’re making that available in the store and allowing people to upgrade to the full version directly from the application.” He also spoke of the introduction of subscription based services from within the store itself, “We’re also thinking of implementing subscriptions, but more in terms of a subscription to specific applications, rather than a subscription to the store itself. It might be needed for content like news which is an ongoing service where you don’t want to charge users up-front, but use a renewal model every month or week.” This would add an entirely new dimension to the store as it would enable the developers to come up with exciting subscription based services for the users to opt for instead of a one time bulk payment for the entire package or the application.
Although not confirmed, I have also heard that re-downloading of purchased content should be addressed in the coming months. If you have any information regarding this issue, please leave us a comment and I will update this post accordingly.
More device support coming soon. All the new S60v3 devices which shipped with the new 7.1 Web Browser are currently not compatible with the Ovi Store client because of some the new web browser. But a compatible build is expected to be released soon. Steve Litchfield recently tweeted that “Yes, it’s because the Ovi Store client doesn’t like the new v7.1 Web browser. There’s a new client coming in a week. Also, as more and more devices ship with the Ovi Store client pre-installed, not only will more people start using it, but even people who were previously not aware of the store would come to know of it and what it offers.
More language support soon. MocoNews.net is reporting that Portuguese, French and simplified Chinese languages would be supported by the Ovi Store by the end of this year. This should significantly increase the user base and bring in more locally relevant content to the store.
New Content. MocoNews.net is also reporting that Nokia is approving 500 new content items per week, which I believe would be the biggest attraction for users to start using the store.
More Carrier Deals. Nokia is reportedly in talks with more carriers from around the world, including AT&T in the USA for carrier based billing support.
