I was having a conversation with a colleague in the publishing industry. We were talking about how Nokia has been trying to promote efforts for their Comes with Music brand in different parts of the world. At one point we talked about how it seems that they want to go head to head against the iPod as the choice for music. Although it doesn’t seem evident, there is truth to this as in my hypotheses, people only keep one music library — and that would be kept in their iPod.

Sure, their phones may have music but if you can …read more

How i wish the Philippines could properly implement the Comes with Music program of Nokia. In Singapore, buying a Nokia phone allows you to enjoy one full year of free music downloads. In the Philippines, w cannot implement such a scheme because of (1) the record labels and (2) there’s a rule that value added services should go through a company that is owned by a Filipino. Which means Nokia may have to go through a third party service provider or through a telco, which completely defeats the purpose of having the Ovi store and the Comes with Music freebies. …read more

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How do you say OVI? More than half the people don’t know what it is and unless you’re from Finland, you won’t know how to pronounce it. This works on two levels for Nokia either they have a really great viral campaign or the 5th most valued brand in the world has a hard time getting a new brand out (I guess this is how ‘Nokia’ overshadows ‘Ovi’).

What a great viral campaign, finding out what Ovi actually means. The word ‘Ovi’ means ‘door’ in reference to Nokia’s doorway of services which includes Comes with Music, N-Gage, Maps, Mail, …read more

Winners come and go. And if you’ve been following the recent trend in the technology industry Apple has been taking a beating with the latest release of Microsoft’s new “I’m a PC” ads + complaints from developers and consumers on the iPhone 3G’s performance. Today, Nokia is pulling into the fray to join the battle for music dominance and yes, they do pose a serious threat to Apple as the Finnish company champions independent music (the Nokia IAC) and free downloads. I heard about their Comes with Music campaign at a Nokia dinner a few weeks back and they might …read more