In a recent interview, multimedia guy Anssi Vanjoki of Nokia offered an open door for Apple to join up with the Finnish handset manufacturer. “In Finnish, Ovi means door, and our door is open. Of course, Apple can get into our portal. We even invite Steve Jobs to do so” says Vanjoki.
Ovi was announced earlier this year (and won’t be ready until probably mid-2008, which I think is really stupid, but whatever) and aims to be a single web portal through which Nokia users can organize their online lives.
I think inviting Apple to be a part of Ovi is a bit of a jab, personally. While it shows that Nokia isn’t scared of competition to their existing music store, it also somewhat points out that Apple is an incredibly closed system. I think this was Vanjoki’s way of subtly pointing out the difference in the Apple lifestyle and the Nokia lifestyle. Apple’s iTunes, which also serves as a PC Sync software for the iPhone, does not allow other services to tie-in. Nokia’s Ovi, on the other hand, has been advertised to offer a single place where users can access a host of other services such as Flickr, YouTube, and Skype.
Before the fanboys come out all foaming at the mouth, please note that Nokia and Apple are the only 2 handset manufacturers actively advertising a full “lifestyle” around their products. If Motorola were looking to offer a full lifestyle experience, I’d talk about them, too.