Recently, Nokia announced its launch of 'Ovi', a suite of mobile services that would include music (the Nokia Music Store), games (the new N-Gage) and mapping/navigation. It was presented as a big change of strategy for the company, moving away from its hardware-focused roots.
However, some operators reacted with suspicion, worrying that Nokia was moving too much onto their turf in trying to provide services.
However, it seems Nokia is winning them round. At least, it's signed a deal with Vodafone to launch its Ovi-capable handsets in 2008, with much talk of how Ovi will be integrated with Vodafone's own games and music services on the Vodafone Live portal.
It's not clear what they mean by 'integrated' - at the moment, it's looking more like 'complemented'. If you buy an Ovi-capable phone, you'll have access to Nokia's services, but also Vodafone's - and it'll be up to you to choose, for example, whether you want to buy music from the Nokia Music Store, or from Vodafone's MusicStation subscription service. Choice is good, although it could be confusing for some mobile users who don't know which to choose.
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