Nokia launches Ovi brand, consolidates all Nokia services – watch out iTunes

Nokia has opened “the door” to it’s new internet services brand “Ovi.” Apparently, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) isn’t satisfied with just dominating the mobile phone market, now they want to try their hand at internet-based services – music, games, and maps. With “Ovi,” which means “door” in Finnish, Nokia will be consolidating the Nokia Music Store, N-Gage, and Nokia Maps services under a single brand.

Says Nokia President and Chief Executive Officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, “We started this journey with our navigation services earlier this year and we are now combining all our services into a single branded offering – Ovi by Nokia. Over the coming 12 months, you will see us integrate new user interface elements, service suites and web communities to Ovi.”

We can’t wait to see what Nokia brings to the web-based services segment. Ovi is set to offer over-the-air downloads to handsets – with music, games, and navigation software already under it’s belt, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s iTunes is definitely up against some stiff competition.

Expect to see Nokia roll out more and more internet-based services over the coming months. It’s interesting that Nokia would enter into a partnership with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) to bring Windows Live application to Nokia devices. Does Nokia not consider Windows Live a significant threat to their Ovi brand?

Check out the Ovi gateway here – http://www.ovi.com/. The service is expected to go live by the end of this year – Q4 2007.

Nokia press release.