Nokia moves the Ovi brand to PC client

Rating: Nokia Music (for PC) is rebranded Nokia Ovi Player

An interesting move by Nokia. It has taken advantage of an update to its existing PC client software, Nokia Music, to move the ‘Ovi’ brand onto the desktop. Personally, GoMo News views this as an attempt to combat the influence of iTunes – even in the PC world.

The official Nokia blog on this change, here, admits that the change is mostly cosmetic.

“As well as containing numerous defect fixes and some performance enhancements, this is the first version of our application to fully support Windows 7,”  the blog says.

What will happen is that those continuing to use the Nokia Music client software will be invited to upgrade and this process will replace the existing application with the Nokia Ovi player.

One of the most obvious advantages from Nokia’s perspective is that it puts the Ovi brand far more in the user’s face and provides a direct link to the Nokia Music Store.

If that isn’t copying Apple then this is … if you install the Nokia Ovi Player on a new PC (and when you upgrade to Windows 7 from XP that’s what you get), you have to register the PC again. Only one PC can work with Comes with Music. How Apple-like.

When the Ovi player searches a PC for its music collection, it performs one very useful task – the Player optimises track artworks for a mobile phone’s screen.

As the blog says, “The ‘recently added’ view is used by many people as a way of keeping track of their new music. This enhanced view shows your recently added music grouped by albums together with cover art.”

What it omits to say is that recently added is a very simply way of adding new tracks to your mobile phone. If you go to the ‘auto-transfer’ settings, then you can tick the box and just download new stuff.

What GoMo News also noticed is that the Nokia Store is cheaper than 3’s own music store. Cheryl Cole’s Fight for this love is 79 pence on Nokia but 99 pence on 3 and on 3 it is copy-protected.

This move should help Nokia in the fight against iTunes because GoMo News, for one, finds it much easier to use that iTunes for the PC. Plus anything that creates brand awareness for Ovi can’t be a bad thing from Nokia’s perspective.

Tony is based in Surrey and is a veteran journalist he writes on the UK market…. contact him here mailto:tony@mobileinsight.co.uk