Nokia’s Ovi Store will be re-branded as Nokia Services starting in July and August. The Finnish handset maker, however, promises that there will be no change in its store services.
“We have made the decision to change our service branding from Ovi to Nokia. By centralising our services under one brand, not two, we will reinforce the powerful master brand of Nokia and unify our brand architecture — while continuing to deliver compelling opportunities and experiences for partners and consumers alike,” said Nokia in an official communiqué.
Commenting on the development, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Nokia, Jerri DeVard, said, “The reasons for this decision include the fact that Nokia is a well-known and highly-loved brand the world over. Our mobile experiences are tightly integrated with our devices — there is no longer any differentiation.”
The transition road map as laid down by the company, however, seems to be on the longer side as Nokia predicts that the makeover will be complete by the end of 2012. The rebranding exercise would see the handset maker replacing the word Ovi with Nokia not only on device softwares, but also in other places such as printed material or online media and advertisements.
Nokia has assured its users that the transition will be as smooth as possible.
With the rebranding exercise going on, it is highly unlikely that Nokia will be interested in launching its Windows based smartphones.