Tero Ojanpera: our partnership and the opportunity for services

BARCELONA, Spain – Our plans to build a global mobile ecosystem with Microsoft are a great opportunity to leverage our hard work creating compelling mobile experiences for millions. You can see the possibilities looking at the assets on both sides. For example, Ovi Maps is a global success, a trusted navigation service used by millions and a source for great localized content. Bing from Microsoft could enhance that experience with great mobile search integrated into the service. We are also planning to build on our efforts in location point advertising and Ovi Primeplace, Nokia’s local business portal, to create a vibrant local advertising business. Microsoft’s advertising business, AdCenter, could be used in this context to reach advertisers around the world.

Ovi Store has four million downloads per day and a rich content offering from thousands of developers and publishers. We have implemented operator billing with over 100 operators, which triples consumer transactions overnight because it becomes so much easier for them to purchase and download. There’s an opportunity to combine our traction in digital content into the Windows Marketplace experience and integrate the same operator billing that already drives purchases for Ovi Store, opening up apps and experiences to consumers from both sides.

Think about mobile gaming. The growth of smartphones and touch-screens has led to an explosion of mobile gaming in recent years; games are consistently among the top content downloads in Ovi Store. There’s significant potential to align with the Xbox LIVE premium experience and connect millions of mobile users to new ways to enjoy the experience.

These are only some of the possibilities, and delivering on them means opportunities for our developers. Relationships with the developer at the local and regional level will be our top priority, with plans to integrate Microsoft APIs into the Ovi publishers’ portal and leverage our collective strengths to improve how developers distribute content globally, track its performance and make money.

As Stephen Elop has said, we have to disrupt our industry with a new global ecosystem that leverages our strengths to present a real alternative to Apple and Android. A shared collection of compelling consumer experiences will be at the heart of this ecosystem, and combined with Microsoft, we have a great chance to lead the future. Let’s think about different assets, such as operator billing, we have built in Services and how could we leverage them in this planned partnership.

Tero

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