In New Delhi: Finnish handset maker Nokia has rechristened its Ovi umbrella brand as Nokia, with the transition beginning in July this year and is expected to be completed across all countries and all services by the end of 2012.
By centralising its services identity under one brand, instead of two, the handset maker hopes to bring about unity to its brand architecture and further reinforce the brand of Nokia.
Even though Nokia has not mentioned it in its blogpost, it is worth noting that the change in name is happening in the lead-up to the launch of new set of smartphones running Windows Phone 7. Henceforth, Nokia will be using nearly all of Microsofts software products, with the exception of Maps, so there is hardly any need for a separate brand name like Ovi.
The company maintains that its changes in the branding architecture will not have any impact on the level of support that it provides to developers. Launched in August 2007, Ovi means door in Finnish and the brand is the name for Nokias app store, as well as for a number of services within it, from music to maps.
Ovi services offer applications like maps, music and media content. It was launched in 2008. In an attempt to turn the tide, it announced its alliance with Microsoft in February.
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