Nokia Games Summit 2007, Lisbon Had an interesting chat over breakfast with one of the Nokians, talking about N-Gage: I didn't realise they'd shifted it from being a hardware device to being a software platform (which makes more sense to me: it's easier to roll out a slice of bundled software inside all N-Series devices than get a specific device into gamers' hands). This effectively makes one aspect of N-Gage an on-device portal for gaming, which seems to put them back into competition with operators etc. From what I was told this is less of a problem than it once as, and with the likes of O2 outsourcing their games operations to third parties and Vodafone acknowledging the role off-portal content has to play, who knows? Nick Malaperiman, Chairman, Play New, Nokia General introduction, and talks about LocoMash, a geocoding photos app. Promotional video for Ovi: "welcome to the fourth screen". Jaako Kardesoja, Director, Play New Experiences, Nokia Talking about Nokia's restructuring as an Internet company, and their gaming solutions related to this. Devices are becoming properly multipurpose. Ovi is Nokia's approach to internet services; walled gardens aren't working, existing fixed Internet players are moving in as are other new companies like Apple. The Internet isn't so much about searching as participation: YouTube, Flickr, etc. Mobile is becoming the primary interface to the Internet and social networks. S60 device owners weekly usage: use camera (76%), listen to music (64%), plu games (54%), browse internet (48%). 76% of UK pilot participants would use mobile TV, 51% want to use search and mapping apps. Applications which embed with the on-phone UI are more compelling to the user: look at the way XBox 260 integrates shopping and community, or that iPhone embeds Google Maps and YouTube. Advanced services are interesting for Nokia because they advance hardware needs (cf Intel/Windows symbiotic relationship pushing up hardware specs and associated software requirements for PCs), and because they let Nokia make revenue directly from service provision. Mobile device + service + PC: tight integration is needed for ease of use (just as with Apple). Ovi is the Finnish for "door": a combination of existing web services on mobile and new Nokia services. In 2005/6 the number of services crammed into a device was very confusing, and made discovery difficult: "a third level menu item won't cut it". There's also an expectation that customers will learn multiple UIs to interact with multiple services. Shopping is a miserable experience, which is why revenues have been low to date. So, take photography: Ovi rationalises galleries, photography, camera, on-phone storage, Flickr, Lifeblog, streaming into Nokia Photos 1.0. The N81 has a new UI: "a service carousel". This UI is designed for "explorers" (early adopters?) first, but will migrate out to others gradually. The company is being restructured around this - every 2 years they have a major reshuffle, they're quite used to it. They've always been a device company and want to retain this position, but also be seen as a great services company: hence restructure into "Devices" and "Services & Software". So, onto gaming... mobile industry has 3bn subscribers, and about 50% of device owners will buy games (compared to 5% currently buying: so there's massive potential for growth). In particular Asia is showing a lot of growth. Challenges: painful shopping experience, lack of DRM (is this really a problem?), inconsistent game quality, etc. Nokia sell 1m devices per day. 40m N Series devices sold to date. Audience questions: Q: How do you collect money from customers now? A: We're relying on credit cards, operator billing, PayPal - and the efficiency of these for collection. Nokia can't reach as far as providing billing and credit collection. In response to questions about the role of operators, Jaako talks about building a bigger ecosystem for everyone. SNAP: available for other devices? Location