With the release of the Ovi application store, Nokia takes the first step towards becoming a power house in software and services. Ovi enables application developers to release, on a single platform, applications for Symbian-based handsets. Due to differences in Symbian OS platforms, the applications will need to be developed for specific OS versions.
Many have jumped to the conclusion of comparing Ovi with the Apple application store. We suspect that Nokia has much more planned for Ovi than being just a me-too service.
We suspect that Nokia will, if it manages to execute along these lines, bring together Ovi with its acquired QT development framework and Maemo. QT already facilitates the development of applications that work across Linux, Mac OS and Windows. Nokia has released a development port of QT so it also works for Symbian.
The gem of Nokia's execution is as follows: Nokia brings QT to Maemo, or Maemo to QT. Nokia can then approach developers with the following message; develop with QT and the application will be available on Linux, Mac, Windows, Symbian and Maemo. On top of that it will be available on Ovi as a web service and as part of the Ovi application store.
More to Ovi than just an application store -most certainly. Watch for developments on how Nokia is likely to integrate Ovi with QT and its operating systems, and we could see a significant change in application development and distribution. This is one to watch.
