Will AT&T block the Ovi Store on the E71x? Let’s be fair now AT&T

I am really enjoying the Nokia E71x and as you know I have been able to get over most of the AT&T bloatware on the device. I communicated with my Nokia contact regarding support for the Ovi Store, scheduled to launch sometime this month, but they have not yet confirmed that it will supported on [...]

I am really enjoying the Nokia E71x and as you know I have been able to get over most of the AT&T bloatware on the device. I communicated with my Nokia contact regarding support for the Ovi Store, scheduled to launch sometime this month, but they have not yet confirmed that it will supported on the E71x. I am becoming a bit more concerned about the support for the E71x after reading my buddy Sascha Segan’s post on the issue. (Thanks for the link to the story Brad.) We may see the Ovi Store launch in the US, but with support only for unlocked devices while carrier branded ones are left to the mercy of the US carriers.

This would be quite disappointing for Nokia and US consumers who would not be able to enjoy the Ovi Store on their devices. US carriers sell their own applications through their devices and it looks like the Ovi Store may be a competitor they do not want to support. Maybe Nokia could work out a cost sharing deal with the carriers to get the store on these devices, but I don’t really think Nokia should have to do that. AT&T lets Apple have their App Store on the iPhone so they should let Nokia do the same.

I would think that carriers could promote the Ovi Store on Nokia devices and probably sell more devices and gain more subscribers willing to pay for unlimited data. I will be very disappointed if AT&T blocks the Ovi Store on the E71x and think this would be cheating consumers from the full Nokia experience they bought into.

While there are phone geeks like myself who load up and enjoy using a ton of 3rd party applications, the average consumer who goes into the AT&T store and picks up the E71x may care less about the Ovi Store so the device may still do very well. This may also discourage AT&T from supporting the Ovi Store.

If AT&T does block the Ovi Store, it will be disappointing to some of us, but remember you can still continue to download and install applications just like we have been doing for years so if you are happy now with the E71x experience then nothing changes for you when the Ovi Store launches. The Ovi Store gives you another, yet much more consolidated and simple, method for finding and purchasing applications.

Source : http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nokiaexperts/~3/frX...