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Published: 20 March, 2009
The top two handset makers both plan major enhancements to their over-the-air storefronts over the coming weeks, as they seek to topple Apple's iTunes and App Store from their perches in mobile content. Nokia and Samsung both outlined virtual store plans at last month's Mobile World Congress, and they are now filling more details, with the Korean giant making an aggressive assault on the mobile video sector.
The Samsung Movies store is a significant play for the cellphone films business, which is expected to boom as high end, video-optimized smartphones - such as Samsung's own Tocca Ultra - proliferate. Over 1,500 movies and TV shows will be available to download from Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal and Momentum Pictures, to own or rent - 500 will appear at launch, and a further 1,000 will be added by the end of June. Prices will start from £2.49 ($3.55) for a 24-hour rental or £4.99 ($7)to own though top line titles like The Dark Knight could cost up to $24.
The service will roll out first in the UK - where Samsung has piloted most of its store efforts - and Germany, and will extend to most major European markets by the end of the year. It will run on Samsung handsets that include the company's 'Active Matrix Organic LED' touchscreen technology, such as the Tocco Ultra Edition. Further devices with this feature will be rolled out during the year and Samsung also plans to offer the movies service on notebooks, netbooks, Samsung TVs and MP3/MP4 players. By confining usage to its own devices, it is adopting a similar model to that of Apple. Its platform is powered by Acetrax, a digital movie retailer that has holding agreements with major and independent movie and music studios.
Nokia's news has centered, so far at least, more on consolidation of its online retail brands, rather than eye-catching launches. It has already consigned its N-Gage gaming platform to a niche role, and will make its Ovi Store brand the main one for mobile games downloads. In another shift away from multiple brands and homegrown web services, it is reported to be shutting down its social networking site Mosh (Mobilize and Share), which was unveiled in August 2007 and went live last June. At that time it averaged 100,000 visitors and 200,000 downloads a day. Mosh will be consolidated with the Download! and Widsets software platform, as Nokia looks to integrate social location functionality more deeply into the whole Ovi Store experience, rather than offering it as a discrete application.
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