In yet another “disruption” by Nokia ( I love that word now!) the company has decided to do away with the “Ovi” branding it has been so proudly promoting over the past few years. The name “Ovi” would be phased out starting July 2011 and the process would continue well into 2012 by which Nokia expects the transition from “Ovi” services to “Nokia Services” complete. In a blog post on Nokia’s official mouthpiece, the “Conversations” blog, they explain that Nokia has decided to do away with Ovi because they want to centralize their services under one single brand – and that’s Nokia.
For the same reason, all services currently labeled under the “Ovi” name would be simply rechristened and prefixed by Nokia. For example; Ovi Maps will become Nokia Maps, Ovi Store would be Nokia Store and so on. The new branding would make it to new phones that Nokia users would buy later this year. For phones already in the market the change would be bought by software updates. Note that these services are not being shut down as Nokia emphasizes. This is merely a name changing exercise that say is done in the best interest of brand Nokia.
Have some of those Ovi branded leaflets, materials and paraphernalia lying around? Well, hold on it it now for they’re going to be history soon!
