Back in December we gave scant coverage to the acquisition by Nokia of US PC software start-up Avvenu, except to say that perhaps it would give Nokia a way to sidestep place shifting patents. Now not only has Nokia proved that assumption to be right, but it has built the entire Avvenu concept and more into its Ovi platform and the result will immediately make Nokia devices ‘ particularly the new N96 – highly desirable. It launched the software this week, making services immediately available and demonstrated them to analysts and press.
The PC version of the Avvenu applications are renamed Nokia Ovi Suite an are now given away with all Nokia devices which have advanced browsing and access to Ovi. And by the addition of your own free piece of storage on some remote Ovi server, your PC, the handset and the server, form a permanently connected triumvirate of services for both enterprise clients and consumers.
From the handset you can look at all the files on your PC, and that includes media files, so yes this is a form of placeshifting (fileshifting?). But by using your handset and a single press of a simple syncing button you can also send those files to some Ovi server space, and from there access them, password protected, from any internet connected device. Immediately there are use cases for watching video stored on your PC on a remote PC, or (if that PC already has a connection to a TV set) on a TV. And because at no time would the files need to be sent to your handset, you are unlikely to use up huge amounts of what can be expensive mobile data minutes (not a problem if you have a flat rate internet monthly charge). But equally you can send them to your handset.
But Nokia pitched this headlong at the enterprise client, showing off spreadsheets, PDFs and Powerpoint presentation files all being downloaded to a handset, or equally easily synced with Ovi (web storage), the handset and the PC, with a single button push. The resulting presentation or spreadsheet can be shared on any PC or emailed (from the web) to someone from your handset (without it ever going there if you prefer).
This move is going to shift data services for operator partners and make life far easier for enterprise road warriors, who won’t have to cart around their laptops everywhere they go.
Now we are not saying that these are exclusive capabilities, only that Nokia has them all wrapped up in a bundle with strong ease of use. There are many other use cases, for instance sharing photos with friends can be done in the same way, put them on Ovi, and use the Ovi Share application. Similarly if you want a controlled group of work colleagues to see the same version of a report or plan, then using Ovi Share can be like a groupware application.
Also the sync process on the PC, and with Ovi is a way of backing up files for both the handset and the PC, and especially backing up personal entertainment content like music and video, and also contact numbers, so that if you lose your handset, you don’t lose your contact data or favorite songs. There is even an ‘age off’ facility achieved by telling Ovi how long you want the content stored on the web for.
Nokia Ovi Suite is also the beginning of a platform on the PC for Nokia to continue to develop. If Microsoft was still its arch enemy (nowadays it likes to think of Google in that role) then it could build on this to fill out its own applications. Certainly the idea of offering web server based storage areas for personal documents makes this a stab at Google, and with syncing or calendar and diaries across all three (PC, Handset, web) turns Ovi into a super-Personal Information Manager ‘ accessible from anywhere through a simple and unified interface.
One thing that we love the idea of is moving Microsoft files types ‘ Excel, Powerpoint, along with non-Microsoft files types like Adobe Acrobat – around the world without having to do it from a Window Mobile handset, and without having to try to squeeze the PC interface onto a handset. Presumably they will play on a handset that runs Symbian (although that wasn’t said explicitly). Again, not the first time this has been done, but within the wider context of Nokia’s handset dominance ‘ a really good feature.
This is Nokia’s way, instead of helping multiple companies like Avvenu thrive on an open architecture (which might be the Google ‘ Android way) it buys the company and integrates the software. A quicker way to build killer apps some might think, than opening up the source code of Symbian and Series 60 ‘ though in the long term it has to open its architectures, but the effects of that may not really be felt for two years.
“Today we are showing people how you can easily backup, sync and share your content using Ovi services on your PC, the web and your mobile device”, said Jussi Nevanlinna, Vice President of Product and Portfolio Management in Nokia’s Services & Software business. “Our stepwise approach to rolling out and integrating these and other elements of Ovi lets us learn and adjust according to the feedback we receive from people, so that we can constantly improve the user’s experience of our services. We recognize that in the services business bringing something new to market is not the end of its development – it’s only the beginning.”