Okay, so here I’m back with a little rant which is long overdue in my opinion. I was an Ovi User since Day 1. My Ovi Share Album is still filled with a ton of pictures, that i dont even have on my hard disk. Whenever I was on the Road, i took the Pics, uploaded them, ready for my loved ones to have a look at. But, after a huge site upate, share on Ovi got messed up and since is barely usable. After some weeks of exactly nothing happening, i decided to go for a Flickr Pro Account. Why? Simple, better integration with other OSes, much more Options, and an active developer scene, that helps making the experience better with numerous helpers, like Picnik, a great online picture editing tool.
Next up, we have Ovi Contacts. Which basically is a good Thing, as you can restore contacts and sync your phone with it. you can further edit your contacts directly on the website/Ovi suite, add birthdays, pics and all. which is pretty nifty but then again, and this is one of the biggest downers of the Ovi services: you can only use it on a Nokia Phone. Yes i know I’m a big Google fan, but with google, you can do this all as well, and even further, those contacts will a) sync with your Nokia Phone as well as b) sync with your Android device. Since i’m open minded and always up to try a new experience (like i do right now with my HTC Desire), Ovi Contacts remains useless for me. The same thing applies for the Ovi Calendar.
Files on Ovi is another good Idea, with sharing your Files and whatnot via your Nokia Device. again, only via Nokia Device. Can i access those files on Android? Nope. Best alternative for me here is Dropbox. Available on every OS and working flawless.
Another Thing that i wouldn’t scrape completely, but needs a whole lotta work is the Ovi Store. This is a much discussed topic everywhere. I find it’s a MUST to have an App store nowadays, especially for Joe Average, who doesnt even know that there is such a thing as Apps on a Nokia Device. To give them a place where all (or most) Apps are available, ready for download is a good thing. I think we can all agree on that, it benefits the Devs, and of course the customer. But what is a complete whack is the fact, that with Nokia’s split up Symbian Portfolio, not all Apps are available for every OS version, i.e. not on every Phone.. I’m sick and tired of talking to people who see a certain app and discover that its not available for their Device. I surely hope this is a subject to change, with the upcoming symbian^3 and symbian^4 versions. The problems from the past, with all the login to Ovi chaos etc are thankfully over due to some updates. The Ovi Store isn’t exactly problem-free, but they might steer the ship round, better sooner than later.
Ovi Mail – well, nothing wrong with a free Mailbox. to be honest, i never used it, never tried it. Never heard anything bad about it either.
oh and then, there’s the Music Store. I’m not a Fan of music stores whatsoever. Most of the music i listen to, cant be find in any music store anyways. but lets see it from a normal standpoint. the Music store is well done so far. but, its again only on Nokia Devices. Plus, its not even available on all web browsers. as usual, mac users like me are still left out in the cold, which is plain and simple ridiculous.
So, what should Nokia do?
In the words of tnkgrl: “stop reinventing the wheel, Nokia”! I don’t exactly get the Point why Nokia tries to build on own services so much more than on already existing ones. Why not Flickr or Picasa, tightly integrated in the Services and Devices instead of Ovi Share. Twitter and Facebook Integration is long overdue as well, but should be in future Devices, thank god. I have absolutely no use for the Music Store, Ovi Share or the Contacts. It simply isnt neccessary and not as functional as other Clients and Services. So Nokia, here’s my advice what you should do: stop re-inventing the wheel and get back to make killer phones, like you did before. You have always been known to make amazing Phones, and you still have “it”. The Nokia N8 i had my hands on is a very good example for this. Stop working on all those Services, i would even go as far and saying to stop them completely and rely on already existing, successfull services. Integrate them tight into your Devices. and win.
Hey, where is Ovi Maps?
Correct, i left Ovi Maps out of the rant. Why? It works. it simply works, i love it. Ovi Maps have come a very long way, it was a bit of a mess at first, but I used it a lot in the past lately and i can safely say that its brilliant. accurate, snappy and no troubles at all. I even went as far as buying a in-car holder for my Nokia X6, as i think the X6 is just brilliant for navigation. Pump this up with some more Features and better sharing integration and it kills every mobile navigation possibility. and next, make it available for other OSes! Ovi Maps is here to stay.