Nokia’s Ovi was widely predicted to rile operators, and El Reg is noting that it seems to have done so—the flagship N81 handset won’t garner a lot of support from the UK operators. T-Mobile and 3UK won’t be including the phone in their line-up, while Orange has excluded Nokia (NYSE: NOK) completely from its new range. Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) will offer the N81 but it is absent from the telcos line-up for its MusicStation service, and O2 is likely to be focusing on promoting the iPhone.

“Mobile operators are essentially hire purchase companies. Heavy subsidies and promotion mean the punter gets a phone for basically nothing up front and pays for it over the length of the contract. You can still get an unlocked device from the likes of Expansys, but this is relegated to the niche market of gadget fans. Without an operator subsidy, the mass market for a device just isn’t there…So, farewell the Nokia N81 - we hardly knew you. Operators have sunk the music flagship before it’s even left port” write El Reg.

There’s a few things wrong with this assessment. First, while Nokia assuredly would have loved to get more support from the operators, it certainly won’t have been counting on it…Nokia knew its Ovi service would annoy operators, and if that didn’t occur to it Orange made the point very, very clear. Second, while the UK is a big market, it’s certainly not the only one in the world. It may be indicative of the way operators will welcome the handset and service, but it only needs a couple of relatively big operators to support it and Nokia can turn a profit on the handset. Thirdly, the N81 was always going to be a niche market, so saying that it’s going to fail because it misses out on the mass market is a little misleading.