The evolution of Nokia and Ovi

Today, Nokia made a decision to change our service branding from Ovi to Nokia. The main reason for this change is so we can leverage the high-value of the Nokia master brand to better support future plans to deliver disruptive and compelling mobile experiences globally.

Of course the irony of this announcement is not lost on all of us here at the Ovi Blog. It is important to reiterate that we are changing the name of our services from Ovi to Nokia, not closing them. This space will continue to be an important source for news, trends and tips for mobile experiences enjoyed by millions of the Nokia faithful. We will keep you posted as we evolve our presence to fit our new direction.

So, let’s cut to the chase. Does this mean big changes for your services experience? Not at all. The only difference consumers can expect to see is the replacement of the brand Ovi with Nokia, not only on their device software and the web but also in other places such as printed material or online media and advertisements.

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.

So, this is relatively big news, but the important thing to remember is that this not changing the experiences that you have come to enjoy. Your feedback and insight into the evolution of our services has been critical to getting them where they are today. Your feedback is even more critical as we accelerate the expansion of our portfolio to include Nokia devices running on the Windows Phone platform. Let’s keep talking.