Having faithfully paid the 50 euros to register with Ovi Publishers several days ago, I have been happily working on my upcoming application, preparing for the release of the new N900 store which I was assured is in the last stages of finalization.

I have spent many years in Canada operating doing very legitimate and legal development as a sole proprietor, as long as one pays taxes, there is no necessity to incorporate as a company, as this is recognized as an important element of trade (not everyone who does business can or will incorporate).


Today my Nokia Store / Ovi Publisher account was disabled and locked out, because I am not a corporation.

Nokia does not recognize individuals or sole proprietorship as valid business entities, and as such only corporations may publish through the Ovi store. Needless to say, as a legitimate businessman, I feel incredibly let down by Nokia, and the Ovi policies. These policies are going to prevent 95% of application developers from publishing through nokia, leaving only the choice of giving our work away for free (which is fine if you're into that), or trying to establish an independent distribution channel which is going to be incredibly difficult.

Nokia should ensure that they either recognise sole proprietorships as legitimate business entities, or make it very clear - and i mean 72px font clear, that they do not allow individuals to publish through the store.

I moved over from Apple because of their policies and increasingly corporation-centric publishing rules. I'm really sad to say that it looks like I made a mistake, and without a distribution channel, Nokia has left me, and many other future application developers high and dry.



I know I'm feeling emotional, but right now I just feel like forgetting I ever heard about the N900. This sucks