Nokia’s answer to Apple’s iPhone App Store launched today on fifty phone models, with more to come. But early reviews range from so-so to brutal:
Today sees the worldwide roll-out of Nokia’s Ovi Store, the company’s response to Apple’s App Store (and other centralized content stores for mobile phones and OS’es), and no doubt the company is watching the launch unfold on a global scale with watchful eyes. Here’s the thing: the launch is an utter disaster and I assume (hope) Nokia executives are outraged with the way things are going.
Nokia has admitted some reliability problems due to the onslaught of interest, but seems to claim that the client software on its phones is performing well.
Even for an Apple innovation, the iPhone App Store’s impact has been startling–a year ago, no mobile platform had an on-phone application platform that was comparable to it, and now it’s absolutely mandatory. And with Apple’s store having ongoing issues of its own, you would think that the company’s rivals have a good opportunity to make up for lost time–but only if they get their stores right, and quickly fill them up with appealing apps.
Also: Is it just me, or does Nokia’s “Ovi” branding seem ungainly and redundant? Why not just “the Nokia Software Store,” or somesuch?