Why the Ovi Store is still total bollocks

Yes I’m a fan. A big Nokia fan. Using my new N86 I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the background-processing abilities with the likes of Nimbuzz running along with Google Maps, ShoZu and so on. The camera is, of course, brilliant, too.

But the Ovi Store?

Oh dear.

Here’s just one indication why it’s struggling.

I clicked the Ovi Store icon on my N86 earlier today. It’s just a link. The Ovi Store App wasn’t pre-installed on my device — instead, click the icon and woosh, it loads the web browser and then navigates to the web-based Ovi Store.

This is ok.

I’m not entirely impressed at the fact it couldn’t be factory installed — but at least there’s an icon.

Instead of being transported to the Ovi Store website, I got this screen:

“Did you know there’s a faster way to browse the Ovi Store?” asks the text prompt.

I sure did.

I was delighted. Brilliant. I was being offered the Ovi Store app for download.

Good thinking Nokia.

I clicked the ‘YES!’ link.

Here’s the next screen:

Yes… that item is unavailable.

Total bollocks.

It’s not a massive problem for me, personally. I’m the geek — I can put up with navigating around the Ovi website. I can press ‘back’ and carry on. I understand errors happen and am reasonably tolerant provided I can find a work-around.

But for the normob who’s already frightened to hell by the Nokia experience, this kind of service level is dire.

We know that Nokia is trying to evolve itself into a services company — indeed, I sat in front of Mr Savander himself who explained the capacity issues that played havoc with the launch day — but this user experience is simply unacceptable.

If I was from Apple, I’d be looking at this and … you know what, I wouldn’t be laughing. This is beyond funny.

It’s beyond, ‘ha ha, aren’t they shit’.

Nokia has a 52.5 billion dollar market cap (just slightly smaller than the combined market caps of both Motorola and RIM).

It’s no joke.

What is it going to take for Nokia to deliver a reliable and exciting Ovi Store experience?

Can’t somebody at Ovi hire a few more testers or something and get the basics right?