Nokia's Ovi to Rival Apple's iTunes

With some new phones coming out, Nokia is poised to take on Apple's iTunes market with its new Ovi web site. Ovi, which is Finnish for door, will offer music, games, maps and photo services. According to this CNN article, Ovi indicates that Nokia's ambition transcends their hardware development.

Ovi's game service coincides with their new N series phones, which are more geared to multimedia and gaming. Some have even ventured to say that the N95 is superior to the iPhone. It's surprising that Nokia is gearing up to re-enter the mobile gaming market after their failed N-Gage.

According to Kevin Burden, an analyst at the research firm Telephia, Ovi will let users "totally bypass their carrier." Useres will be able to download through their wireless provider as well as on their computer and then transfered to the phone via a wired connection.

To take down Apple's iTunes will be a difficult task for Nokia. Their parallels with Apple are twofold - both are prolific hardware designers (Nokia being the world's leading mobile phone handset provider), and both have entered the multimedia download market. Apple, ostensibly, seems to be doing very well with their iPhone - they've at least created more buzz than any other handset release. Nokia has some ground to make up.

It's certainly great to see a competitor keeping Apple's iTunes honest.

Nokia Teams Up With Microsoft

According to a WSJ article, Nokia Corp. will include Microsoft applications on their handsets in 11 European and Middle Eastern markets - including the UK, France, Germany and Spain.

Users will be able to download Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger, Live Contacts and Live Spaces software on their N-Series Nokia devices.

According to John Mangelaars, Microsoft's European vice president for online services business,

We have a lot of expectations for the mobile Internet, but it's not really taken off yet. However, we see the number of users doubling every year on the mobile side and I see this deal helping to accelerate that.

This is debatable - especially in Europe. Microsoft seems to be coming into the Mobile Web game a little late. Other software developers (especially those who specialize in developing rich web applications) have made their products readily available for almost all mobile platforms. That's where Microsoft lags behind the new and improved software developers in the Web 2.0 arena - they're still isolating their products by limiting platform compatibility. They've started doing better, but purely internet based applications are becoming suitable replacements for their killer apps of old.

These Microsoft applications are hardly even a cherry on top of the available features on the N-series media devices. Some might even argue it's the best device available.