Yesterday we exposed the main issue faced by the full suite of Ovi software offered by Nokia. We explained how the different services don’t interact with each other and how it’s almost impossible to get a complete experience out of them. Today, we try to make suggestions as to how we envision a true and complete Ovi package.
1. The Single Entity, Suggested Solution
One common door to Ovi (pun intended) should exist and not one per service, meaning that whenever you get a new device, you would only need to sign in once and all your services: Sync, N-Gage, Ovi Contacts, Maps, Store, Music Store, Share, Files, should be set up. At the same time, one purchase details should be required to allow you to buy anything from any Ovi service, like Maps, N-Gage, Music Store and Ovi Store. It’s pure logic.
Another thing we expect out of a single entity is to have a single way to sync all the data available. Ovi Sync shouldn’t be limited to Contacts and Calendar, but should provide a gateway to sync THE ENTIRETY of our Ovi data: we should be able to sync our N-Gage game progresses, Maps data, Music and Ovi store purchases with one click of a button, or if you want my opinion, without any click of a button. The process should be invisible, in the background, and the user shouldn’t even have to think about sync’ing his data.
2. The Dismantled Experience, Suggested Solution
The first thing that needs to be done is to tie the different contacts together. I’m sick of having to add my favorite contacts to N-Gage, and Ovi Contacts, and Share Online / Ovi Share, and to not be able to tie all of that together with my regular Address Book. If I add an @ovi.com email to one of my address book contacts, I expect to be able to directly chat with them, view their uploaded images, and invite them to a game of N-Gage with them, easily. If I find a new friend on one of these 4 services, I expect to be asked whether or not I want to add this persons details to my Address Book and communicate with them via the other services.
I would also love to finally see physical addresses for Contacts tied in with Ovi Maps, and have the option to set some of these as favorite locations inside Maps. Another option I expect is to be able to share a route or a set of favorite locations seamlessly with any of my contacts.
Also, whenever I upload an image to Share Online, or download music via the Music Store, I expect to see these media available on my Ovi Files, or at least to be given the choice to set this up and have it work in the background.
Another thing I want, is to finally see Sports Tracker and Nokia Messaging (or Nokia Email), tied in with the rest of Ovi. They may be different than the rest of the offers, but they have earned their place as part of Nokia’s services. For example, I would like to route my path in SportsTracker using locations from Ovi Maps (and the other way around: set a route in Sports Tracker as a favorite in Ovi Maps), and have images taken during a Sports Tracker exercise upload directly to Ovi Share and available to Ovi Files. As for Nokia Messaging, I wish for a simple way to send emails to my Ovi Contacts, or to send links of my Ovi Share galleries, Sports Tracker exercises or Ovi Maps favorites, without having to open that second application first, take the link, then open Nokia Messaging and paste it.
Do you have any other suggestions for a more integrated experience on Ovi? How do you reckon the services should interact with each other, and how do you envision the future of Ovi if it was to be built like you want it to? Share your thoughts below. With Nokia World 2009 only a week away and both me and Ricky on location, we’ll make sure to voice your opinions to the different Ovi managers.
