Aug 08 2010

Ovi Store Racism — Why it is called a store?

Posted by Jade Bryan in Nokia, OVI, Ovi Store, tags: Nokia, OVI, Ovi Store

Ovi Store racism Ovi Store Racism — Why it is called a store?

Have you ever experience finding apps in Ovi Store and ended with this “Your Search did not match any items compatible wit your mobile”. There are only three reasons for that, either there’s a typo or actually the item is not available in the Ovi Store or the most annoying reason is that Ovi Store don’t offer it to your country.

Let’s talk more on the last reason why we should quote Ovi Store as a “racist” and why there is a “racism” and sorry if I haven’t any adjective to define their predicament over us—or so do I need to?

The stats that Ovi Store have is very impressive, as EVP Niklas Savander noted that there are 1.7 million downloads of apps in Ovi Store everyday. But the thing that they keep on hiding and avoiding to comment is the fact that there are also millions of people frustrated with the Ovi Store experience especially on the quality of apps that are offered.

I’m not questioning the companies and distributor of apps—there are excellent ones. But the thing that Nokia is doing wrong is keeping the wrong apps in Ovi Store and making the store messed up with few great application and with overwhelming low-rated apps. Like on the recent Ovi App Wizard, hundreds of blog-based apps flooded the store and making the Ovi Store like mashed potatoes or babies’ cereals.

And the saddest part for us? We, especially in Asia, are left with few top-notch apps, bunch of the nuts, and almost no paid items. There are few payable apps that can be seen, like the Gravity and other upgradeable apps, though. Giving you a good example is the Doodle Jump that is impossible to try and buy if your living here. It make sense that they consider us illiterate in paying Ovi Store items and to finally underline the word racism.

If Nokia is not the reason why paid items isn’t available for millions of people, then to whom we should blame this? To the developers or to the laws that we have here? Answer is neither one of them. It’s the obligation of the company to deliver quality items from the store and giving it a good reason why it is called ‘OVI Store’ and not an OVI try and try portal.

ovisearch Ovi Store Racism — Why it is called a store?

I don’t really care on the “laws” that governed from manufacturer to distributor of apps that make this things happened. But my point is that Nokia should make some solutions regarding this issue. And the only thing that makes me stay with Ovi Store is because of the few developers that made quality apps and I don’t know when my limit will fall out.

P.S.

Please update your featured applications. We are stuck for months now with those.

And is ovi store a racist for you – why and why not?

http://breno.co Breno

Doodle Jump is an emblematic case. But if you want to get “daily” frustration, check the apps featured in OviDailyApp (http://blog.ovi.com/dailyapp/). They are premium applications that the official blog informs to be global, but more often than not they aren’t. It’s difficult to even contact the publishers, since Ovi doesn’t show any contact information when you’re from an “unworthy” country. The worst of all is that such exclusion happens in markets where Nokia is still the strongest (Asia and, in my case, Brazil). They’re trying to embrace the publishers who profit on Apple’s store but are bringing only the limitations to Ovi. Someone needs to inform them about global economy and international credit cards.
diogonev

Android Market iis way more racist. Most countries can’t get even ONE paid app unless you root your phone and trick the Market into thinking that you’re living in some other country
http://twitter.com/ovijade Jade Bryan

Hello Breno!

In that case you are totally correct. Another point to be made is that they are slow in updating the featured apps. Plus why we still offered with those apps that we already downloaded and it’s just a waste of time.

Also, browsing the apps from up to down is a mess. You will be back on the top (first app list) once you have clicked an app.

Hope we could get the solutions asap.
http://twitter.com/ovijade Jade Bryan

@diogonev

You are also saying that it is better to hack our devices rather than be frustrated on these situation. Which is correct?
Peter Storm

You know, you guys are always complaining about Nokia and OVI and how bad Nokia is, so why not change make and go over to Android or something else. Oh I forgot………. when Nokia offers something free, like a rip to Nokia World or an X6 – then all is fine again. Hippocrates the lot of you.
http://www.maemo-freak.com christexaport

Ovi is just a delivery channel. The developer has the onus to deliver his app to certain locales, and not Ovi.

I am sure there are brick and mortar retailers in India that lack the choices we see in the US in WalMart, etc. There may be a legal reason for the omission, or maybe there is a security measure that requires server space that is unavailable for your country. There could be myriads of reasons why things are missing, but it is rarely the fault of Ovi, and usually the choice of the developer.

Don’t think this is a isolated occurance. This is the same or worse on the App Store and Android Market as well. There are laws that apply to software, and infrastructure needed to secure and deliver it. If you have an issue with not having access to an app, feel free to contact that developer for an explanation. I’m sure you’ll see there is always a decent explanation as to why, like localization, copyrights, security, or other issues.

This is the same in the US. We can’t use Spotify, but does that make it racist? And is it Ovi’s fault. Of course not. The service is limited to its market because of licensing laws. It pays to know the truth, and not assume and call someone/thing racist.

Being called a racist is pretty low, and can dig to a person’s soul. Ovi has the same limitations all app stores have. But remember, Symbian allows sideloaded apps. So if there is nothing to prevent the apps from working in India or anywhere else, you can always contact the developer, ask for a signed installation file, and make them aware of the demand for their work in your locale. It works surprisingly well, and can many times get you a free license for showing them the love and putting them in the know about a new market.

Ovi Store is just A delivery channel, not THE delivery channel. Its one of the many places developers can deliver apps. What it isn’t is a broad repository of ALL of the apps available for the platform. I’m happy it isn’t, as we’ve seen what Apple and others have done when controlling that delivery channel. Because Ovi Store is selective, they only control what they deliver, not what you can install on your device.

I don’t think their racist, just doing the best they can under the circumstances. Good post, nonetheless, and I hope it has an effect on how Ovi proceeds in the future. I’d like to see more globally delivered apps, as tech proliferation, power, and accessibility are important to me. Evidently, to you as well. Hope we see changes in the future. I’m with you all the way.
Shao

I’m in Romania and have seen this message too. More than that, I can’t use a credit card to purchase any of the “premium” apps. It works trough all the steps but in the end: “…there is a problem with paying… bla, bla… try another time…”. I tryed for 3 months now
To answer the question “why don’t I switch the manufacturer”: because of the hardware and free software (like gps) – I use a n86
p.s. We have a Nokia factory here – doesn’t mean that we have even 5o% of map coverage
NX

ovi try and try portal… I can’t agree with you anymore
I just bought an Nokia X6 and I’m tired to get the message like “it is not available for your phone” or “it is not available in your country” all the time.
Nebius

I have a nokia eseries… Not a phone with a touchsreen, where are the apps ????
miksuh

Some content in Ovi Stiore is simply related to geographical location and those apps usually have some value only to those living at that specific area. That has nothing to do with racism.

I’m currently creating one app like that. It will not be published until some time in next year. There is still lots of work to do and I’m eg. waiting for Qt Mobility API of mapping, location and landmarks to be released and become available to developers. I’m not going to talk about my app publicly yet. All I say is that it will be a service related to my home city of Espoo here in Finland. It’s also related to neighbouring cities of Kauniainen, Helsinki and Vantaa. So it will have value mostly to people living in the capital city metropolitan area of Finland.

This is just an example, but if you are not living in eg. Finland then do you really need to download eg. some Finnish apps which deal with local services? Or widgets showing news in Finnish? What would you do with those apps if you do not live in Finland and do not understand Finnish? You could not really use those local service anyway. So why should those apps be shown to you?

And by the way. It does not make sence to blame Ovi Store because it is the application developers who decide to whom his/hers apps are aimed at.

I have heard lots of stupid claims about Ovi Store but calling it racist is one of the most ridiculous claims ever.
miksuh

@Shao

> I’m in Romania and have seen this message too. More than that, I can’t use a credit
> card to purchase any of the “premium” apps. It works trough all the steps but in the
> end: “…there is a problem with paying… bla, bla… try another time…”. I tryed for 3
> months now

I recommend you contact your bank, I’m quite sure it’s problem caused by them, not by Ovi Store. Call me racist if you want, but I would not call any bank in the Romania the most reliable in the EU.
miksuh

> I’m eg. waiting for Qt Mobility API of mapping, location and landmarks to be released > and become available to developers.

Eh, I ofcourse meant to say: API of maps, navigation and landmarks
brower

@miksuh
Then with your idea we all can know that you’re a mere developer. Nothing more than this.

When you agree with nokia to have “your” app only to you country (by example), saying that you app is only for you “local” area, you forget about people that are going to finland and have nokia, but live in another country, and can’t download yout app for local things…

This way of thinking is stupid and only is bad for Nokia itself (they can’t see that symbian is loosing area everyday for android, bada and iOS?). Why an app made for nokia can’t be installed by anyone in world? No one knows if someone will need an specific app.

I’m tired to search the app that i need in forums because no one is available for my country. The developers are the one that lost because if i can’t download from Ovi, i can’t pay. Then i must search for pirate versions in forums.

bad bad nokia… symbian is only going for the bottom of the well, even if now it is “open source” but every new app is specific only for some nokia phones (you guys forget that Samsung and Sony Ericsson have phones with symbian with much more power than many nokia shit phones (i8910, Satio, Vivaz, Xperia, etc)… tsc tsc…
http://blog.virtualplace.ro/2010/08/27/nokia-as-denzel-role-in-industrys-version-of-the-book-of-eli/ Nokia as Denzel Role In Industry’s Version of “The Book Of Eli” | Virtual Place Blog

[...] yet revealing post by fellow Symbian Freak illusionado, aka Jade Bryan Jardinico, titled "Ovi Store Racism". Always a fan of rants and controversial subject matter on the subject of mobility, I knew I [...]
http://twitter.com/ovijade Jade Bryan

If I can clearly understand on what does blog.ovi.com/dailyapp post on their review that the apps is available global and why the heck I can’t even find it on the store. They are making jokes in their own promotions.
http://breno.co Breno

I have found this map (http://connectedphone.com/2010/08/747/nokia-publishes-ovi-store-statistics.html). I think it sheds some light on the subject of application availability and why many countries don’t get access to certain applications. However, there’s no excuse for Nokia (or the publisher, if it is the case) not to provide contact information when a country isn’t eligible for app purchase through the OVI Store. They’re not Apple and OVI is no iTunes (yet). They have to make it easy to buy/load applications, not otherwise.
http://twitter.com/ovijade Jade Bryan

@Breno

Look at SEA, they rule here yet they doesn’t provide better contents for us. It sucks when you’re experiencing like this. They should do something…fast.
umairkhan26

A real disappointment from Nokia Ovi Store what the use of buying nokia products if the Ovi Store is nothing to offer Free or Paid Apps to millions of people in Asia many apllications are restricted even Free ones. Their are many other cell phone campanies giving millions of apps to customer world wide Free and Paid its really wrong way to Market Ovi Store it would not only restrict users but also restict nokia. Please look forward into Nokia.
http://symbianworld.org/6626-ovis-staggering-growth-but-where-are-the-paid-apps/ Ovi’s staggering growth, but where are the paid Apps? | SymbianWorld – your S60 and Symbian resource for News, Applications and more

[...] [...]
http://twitter.com/molbal Bálint Molnár

Well, I’m as a developer, disagree. Not the store is racist, but noone. I don’t release some of my apps in China, because I know it won’t be succesful there, so it would just get low ratings and lower my reputation.