So I’ve been using the HTC Magic for a while now, and have had to download some applications from the Android Market. Of course before that I had some experience with Nokia’s Mosh & Ovi Store distribution websites, and Nokia’s Download! application, which I will mention only briefly. Before I get right into it, please note that I am looking at the mobile clients of each distribution channel since, lets face it, who connects their phone to the computer to download content these days.
The now deceased Mosh by Nokia
Well lets begin with the oldest, and now closed, Nokia Mosh. I always felt that while the service was in need of some control, as one would find dozens of different versions of some application you were trying to find, and in some rare occasions you may end up downloading the wrong application. The search function provided with Mosh by Nokia was, to say the least, forgiving. I often received results that only contained the abused “keywords:” line at the bottom of the description, obviously not relating to the application itself.
However, taking all that into consideration, I still enjoyed the service as I was able to find and download whatever application I needed with no restrictions. The only irony in using the tool was that going to the main site from my mobile browser did not automatically redirect me to the mobile version. Considering this is Nokia’s own site the missing feature became quite annoying sometimes.
Ovi Store
In comes the “Knight in Shining Armor”: Ovi Store. Or so it would have seemed, only it really did not deliver on what it promised. The application selection is quite limited, which would have been bearable for a while if at least the store functioned well! If we were to compare the number of applications on Mosh and on Ovi Store we would probably find ourselves with a ratio of hundreds to one. The store is basically a mobile-friendly website, however, it is not a user-friendly one. The browser takes a long time to load the photos of each application, and when the photo is not available the entire layout of the page becomes skewed. Every single session requires you to log in in order to download even the free applications, the purpose of which I can not even begin to imagine. And the search has trouble finding even some of the simplest applications.
Android Market
Android’s Market, on the other hand, is entirely optimized for the handheld that it is running on. It has a large selection of applications without actually repeating any of them for each version the provider uploads. The search capability, while surprising weak considering the major contributor to the platform, Google, at least works, and returns the search results quite quickly. The Market is quite user friendly, and even finds a way to non-intrusively suggest popular downloads. While I haven’t used the application store on the iPhone or any other platform, I feel confident saying that the Android Market is on-par with what a mobile content distribution channel should look like.
This review may seem to give very little credit to Nokia for improving on their existing store applications, however I believe that just like S60 5th, Nokia had a great opportunity to redesign an aging concept and come out with a ground shattering application, but did not. I think the reason behind this is that Nokia is not looking at their competition. After so many years of unparalleled success and market leadership, Nokia forgot how to look behind their shoulder at what the competition is doing, and in that time the competition has done a lot.
-Nokia FanBoy
