Good-bye Ovi, Welcome Nokia Services

It seems that Nokia has decided to kill off the Ovi brand name and rename it Nokia Services, for example instead of Ovi Maps it will now be known as Nokia Maps. Do not worry as for now it remains that it will only be renaming its services and if you’re a Nokia user these changes will be reflected in software updates in the future. When Nokia first created Ovi it was meant to be a competition to Apple’s App Store but it seems that insufficient demand ended up with Ovi being closed off to certain countries.

Jerri DeVard, Nokia Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer said: “The reasons for this decision includes the fact that Nokia is a well-known and highly-loved brand the world over. Our mobile experiences are tightly integrated with our devices – there is no longer a differentiation. For example, if consumers want the best mobile navigation experience, they know it’s a Nokia that they can rely on. These last few years, and moving forward, our mission remains unchanged: we will continue our work to deliver compelling, unified mobile service offerings and next-generation, disruptive technologies.”

Truth be told when Ovi was mentioned it did not have the same ring to it as did Apple’s App Store therefore by creating another brand when Nokia could have relied on their own name just does not make sense. However it looks like under the direction of Stephen Elop things might be turning around for the Finnish company especially with Windows Phone 7 devices somewhere in the not too distant future.