Hold your horses, Ovi is still around but under a different name. On an announcement made over at the Ovi blog, Nokia made the decision to change the Ovi brand into just Nokia to leverage on the value of the master brand.
That’s basically it. They won’t kill the Ovi service, they will just re-brand it into simply Nokia. It’s now Nokia Maps instead of Ovi Maps, or Nokia Apps instead of Ovi Apps. And also in all instances of the word Ovi on Nokia devices, web, and print.
The consumer transition should be a smooth and seamless one, likely to begin in July this year with the intention of it being completed by the end of 2012. It is likely that anybody buying a new Nokia device later this year will start to see the new branding on services included within, however anybody already owning a Nokia phone will see this new rebranding through future software updates.
Does this also mean big changes for coming updates and improvements to your services experience? No change to the plans there either. Our mobile services will progress along their planned development roadmaps, and will also continue to be available to consumers around the world on our devices. Again, only the naming will change to reflect Nokia-branded experiences.
However, Ovi apps are heavily associated with the Symbian Os and one can’t help think if this is Nokia’s way of slowly transitioning or preparing the consumers with the eventuality that Symbian will be replaced by Windows Phone. At least that’s what I think.