Nokia’s Ovi Store is no more, according to blog post on the company’s website. Starting with first services on some of the new Nokia devices in July and August, Ovi services will be rebranded as Nokia services in a transition expected to continue into 2012.
The company said that each of the services under the Ovi umbrella will simply be rebranded as Nokia, with no planned disruption to the service roadmaps.
“We have made the decision to change our service branding from Ovi to Nokia,” wrote Jerri DeVard, Nokia’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, in the post. “By centralizing our services identity under one brand, not two, we will reinforce the powerful master brand of Nokia and unify our brand architecture – while continuing to deliver compelling opportunities and experiences for partners and consumers alike.”
The transition from Ovi to Nokia will begin in July this year, with the intention of it being completed across all countries and all services by the end of 2012. It’s likely that anybody buying a new Nokia smartphone or mobile phone later this year will start to see the new branding on services included within. Existing Nokia owners will see the change enacted through future software updates.
DeVard commented that the reason for the decision was directed at leveraging the strong Nokia brand in all its products.
The company stressed that this is solely “a name-changing exercise” and the service roadmaps will continue exactly as planned. The only difference consumers can expect to see is the replacement of the word Ovi with Nokia, not only on their device software but also in other places such as printed material or online media and advertisements.
Nokia’s Ovi Store, which sells everything from apps to ringtones, currently exceeds 5 million downloads a day.
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