Once again appearing as a Nokia apologist but I downloaded the application this afternoon onto my 5800XM and have experience no issues at all. I have been able to load a nice Associated Press application and a couple of Lonely Planet video's. I think the store experiencing the most issues was the web browser one which obviously since noone in the US owns a Nokia device is the place all the press went to see.

If the store offers anything useful to the end user (something I see as pretty doubtful) then it will survive a launch day fiasco. Remember the MobileMe fiasco from Apple, people have already long forgotten the problems with service that didn't work for months after launch or simply avoided it.

Here's what I think is most damaging about this launch, and it's a compilation of the diverse experiences mentioned: the service is very spotty and performance is dependent on far too many factors. This should have worked seamlessly everywhere or not been launched at all. When multiple users have such a variety of experiences, to me that says more against the quality than say a site access glitch that causes the whole thing to be briefly unavailable. Heck my email server goes down periodically BUT when it's up I have a consistent experience and it works.

This just looks... messy.

There is no doubt that Nokia need a hit in the US and this store would go a long way to restoring credibility. I just played around on it all day and it is really quite nifty and well integrated with the 5800 i.e. 1-click to install ringtones and wallpapers, 1 click to watch videos. I haven't tried to pay for anything yet we'll see how it goes.

There is a slew of new nokia products coming out on every carrier in the US it looks like Nokia is trying to cover their bases and re-enter the US market with carrier branded devices this time. Not too sure if I like that at all. The ovi store will come in carrier branded and unlocked versions so this soft launch could be considered beta until carrier branded and billing based service ships.

Are... are you serious?

Of course, there's always the possibility that _reports_ of problems are based on crappy journalism, and are being talked up to make Nokia look bad. Anyone know if any of these journalists (the actual individuals) reporting the issues are reputable? Are they known fans of any other tech companies? Are they just bitter because Finns are so damn cool?!

It's the Washington Post, not the New York Post.

Can't say I'm not surprised that this is a failure.

I've covered that subject twice on my blog (link below), and am preparing to do so again...

Ovi does not support the tablets, at all. When I complained last year, they spoke of technical hurdles. In 5 minutes I'd researched the issue and showed them a solution. Apparently it was not implemented... and given the Maemo OS break, it may not be for the current crop of products. They may be waiting for the next tablet-- er, device.

You might wanna rethink that double negative.

Yes, but they were just publishing a story from http://www.TechCrunch.com

Here's a link to the journalist's recent work on that site. http://www.techcrunch.com/author/robin/

And here's his official profile. http://www.crunchbase.com/person/robin-wauters

I have nothing against Mr. Wauters, having never heard of him before, but all he reports in this story is that he had a crappy time trying to get Ovi to work today. One person, one experience. But I AM astonished that the editors at the Washington Post thought that this was an acceptable journalistic methodology.

I try to hold a neutral view of any organization that publishes the news, but the individual authors and editors deserve a little digging. Some are fantastic. Some are not. But they ALL have an individual perspective.