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Nokia Remains On Track With Ovi Launch; Contends It Never Promised Carrier Billing From The Start

imageNokia (NYSE: NOK) said today that its Ovi Store is on track for next month’s launch, despite reports yesterday suggesting that it was behind because U.S. consumers wouldn’t be able to pay for applications on their phone bill starting from day one. 

In a Reuters article, it reported yesterday that Nokia was dropping “U.S. operator billing from Ovi launch,” which they said represented a shift in plans (MocoNews picked up the story here.) It said Nokia had originally promised that Ovi would offer operator billing in nine countries, including the U.S. In a statement issued by Nokia today, it said that’s not true. “Ovi store billing and rollout strategy remains on track. We still plan for both carrier & credit card (options which may roll out in different phases) and are in active discussion with all major operators, including those in the U.S. We’ll provide updates as those plans progress.”

A spokesman would not say which countries would offer carrier billing from the start, and if the U.S. was the only exception. “We will have further details at launch regarding partners and carriers, and I don’t have any additional information at this point.” The one confirmed carrier at this point is T-Mobile International (not T-Mobile USA). When I went back to check an interview I conducted in February when Nokia announced the store at Mobile World Congress, the message seemed to be consistent. Nokia’s VP of Product Development for Media George Linardos told mocoNews: “Since we’ll be launching with credit card and carrier billing in some of the markets, it’s a very mature offering.”

Apr 29, 2009 4:01 PM ET
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Posted In: Companies, Nokia

  • Sri

    Services and products from Nokia are very short lived. Their phones are not ususally supoprt for more than 1-2 years. So, are their services. For example, for most users, ovi services disappeared about six months ago with all information lost. Nokia needs to get their reliability level up to have any further buy in from consumers. The reason iPhone is popular is due to the fact once, you have the phone, the services that come with it are reliable and guaranteed for a long time, as proven by the iPod.

  • Billing Bastion

    Nokia's decisions on Ovi billing could be the trend-setter for 2009.  RIM went PayPal despite strong operator relationships.  Apple backed off revenue sharing with AT&T, and went for device margins and activation commissions.  Nokia is evaluating the tradeoff of operator marketing and reconciliation costs.  The billing outsourcers designed content platforms for operator billing.  Amdocs, Convergys, LHS, CGS, etc. will be affected.  Content billing was the insurance against mobile voice going VoIP without call detail, roaming records, and rate plans.

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