Nokia has closed for Ukraine the purchase of applications in OVI
Recently on Habré there are a lot of topics about programming for various mobile platforms. In this regard, I want to notify Ukrainian developers who are going to write under the Nokia Ovi Store that in Ukraine there is no way to buy an application in it. This is important if you are creating local applications that are interesting exclusively to Ukrainian users. You should either review the monetization policy or opt out of Ovi in favor of other platforms.
The fact that the purchase is disabled, of course, is not reported anywhere. Although Nokia officially introduced this service in Ukraine last September, the market for paid applications does not work in it. When logging in from Ukrainian IP via the Internet or through a client built into a mobile phone, you will see a lot of free garbage, but you will not find high-quality games or full versions of programs - they are filtered from the general list.
Checking this out is easy:
I spent a lot of time and finally found support for the Ovi Store - it appears only for logged-in users. At the same time, it works in a very inconvenient mode of "request through the site-> email response", without a history of the issue and the ability to attach at least a screenshot. I am glad that at least they answer necessarily once a day and are quite polite.
After a week of tedious communication, the person from the Ovi store support said that he had nothing to do with the store, but there really was no problem (here I laughed) - “all applications are visible, indicate your IMEI, you need to update the client on the phone”. Further communication stalled, because, judging by the answers, his knowledge and qualifications were not enough to explain this issue, but there was no way to get further.
I think that it is possible sooner or later, the purchase of paid applications will be connected to Ovi. The only question is whether it will be “early” or “late”, and whether it will be connected at all. The situation from the category of «vaporware» is not yet realized, but promised opportunities, on which your business completely depends, and therefore it is dangerous to rely on them.
Please write in the comments if somewhere in the press an explanation of the cause of this problem flickered. And, if you are in another country of the post-Soviet space (especially Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan) - write off whether you have visible paid applications - the situation in our other countries is interesting. Thanks :)
The fact that the purchase is disabled, of course, is not reported anywhere. Although Nokia officially introduced this service in Ukraine last September, the market for paid applications does not work in it. When logging in from Ukrainian IP via the Internet or through a client built into a mobile phone, you will see a lot of free garbage, but you will not find high-quality games or full versions of programs - they are filtered from the general list.
Checking this out is easy:
- go to Applications in the browser and select the “Bestsellers” filter or do the same on the phone using the Ovi client - the list will be empty
- go directly to the page of some paid application, for example: Gravity twitter client - get a notification “Sorry, this item is not available for your country”
- go to Ovi with the IP of another country - you will see a fully functional store
I spent a lot of time and finally found support for the Ovi Store - it appears only for logged-in users. At the same time, it works in a very inconvenient mode of "request through the site-> email response", without a history of the issue and the ability to attach at least a screenshot. I am glad that at least they answer necessarily once a day and are quite polite.
After a week of tedious communication, the person from the Ovi store support said that he had nothing to do with the store, but there really was no problem (here I laughed) - “all applications are visible, indicate your IMEI, you need to update the client on the phone”. Further communication stalled, because, judging by the answers, his knowledge and qualifications were not enough to explain this issue, but there was no way to get further.
I think that it is possible sooner or later, the purchase of paid applications will be connected to Ovi. The only question is whether it will be “early” or “late”, and whether it will be connected at all. The situation from the category of «vaporware» is not yet realized, but promised opportunities, on which your business completely depends, and therefore it is dangerous to rely on them.
Please write in the comments if somewhere in the press an explanation of the cause of this problem flickered. And, if you are in another country of the post-Soviet space (especially Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan) - write off whether you have visible paid applications - the situation in our other countries is interesting. Thanks :)