Here’s a quickie on a “new” service from Nokia that it has released an official video for today. Explore and Share is a way for people who buy their phones in a Nokia retail store to get content from the Ovi store onto their phones incredibly quickly.
How does it work?
Like I said, Nokia has released a video for the service today. I’m embedding it here, but if you’re too impatient to watch, just skip below and read the brief version:
The brief version:
You place your device on a radio-based NFC pad, which transfers files onto your device incredibly quickly. You can copy an entire album in 10 seconds. That’s the “Share” part. The “Explore” part comes from the user interface, which is a friendly screen that allows you to browse content specifically for your device (so it will be a different selection for an N900 owner than for an E71).
What we think?
This service has been knocking about since the Nokia Research Center announceed it would be showcasing it at Nokia World last September – but this is the first official video the NRC has made publicising it to the world at large. Ultimately, it’s pretty cool. But as it currently exists it doesn’t have much value beyond the “hey, that’s cool” idea. How long are you going to hang around in the Nokia store putting content on your phone really fast? It’s a cool NFC service, but it only works in the retail area itself. It’s a nice little Value Added Service for those who go to Nokia stores, but it’s pretty useless outside of there. Unless, of course, Nokia is planning to use the admittedly very nice UI from Explore and Share to make browsing apps on Ovi easier.
Also, there’s something like two actual Nokia stores in the entire United States – one in New York, one in Chicago. So unless it’s planning on putting Explore and Share hubs in the shops of retail partners, this won’t see a whole bunch of use.
I rather see it as a great opportunity for Nokia to differentiate themselves. You put kiosks like this in MNO shops that allow handset customization according to consumer needs. How do you like your phone? what are your prefered features? Are you rather rock or r’n'b?…