Nokia To Launch Gaming Component Of Ovi In Three Months
By Nikhil Pahwa - Mon 31 Mar 2008 12:50 AM PST
The gaming component of Ovi will be launched in India in three months, or so we hope - given the history of delays around the N-Gage launch. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will also allow users to share games. Well, users have been sharing games anyway, but this time it seems there are plans for monetization. Nokia is looking to focus on three services in India, which is one of its largest markets - Gaming (N-Gage), Music and Maps. For maps, they’ve covered eight cities in India so far.
Nokia is looking to partner with service providers, and Sanjay Kapoor, President – Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel has told CIOL that Airtel would work with Nokia on Ovi. It’s obvious that Nokia will benefit from the launch of Ovi in India - getting a piece of the content revenue share will add to its takings. It’s unlikely that content providers will be providing content exclusively to Nokia, so it will be available on operator networks outside of Ovi; discovery of content will be key. What I’d like to know is - have content providers given up some of their revenue share to Nokia, or have mobile operators? From what I’ve heard, offline distribution of content is also a part of Nokai’s plan for Ovi.
