My wish list for Nokia’s Ovi Store

So Nokia also announced its upcoming Ovi Store, a centralized content marketplace that will provide applications, games, videos, tones, graphics and more to most Nokia phone owners. It’s practically the same as the Android Marketplace, the Apple App Store and the BlackBerry Application Storefront.

The biggest advantage Nokia has among all other app stores is that it has th largest existing userbase of mobile phone users worldwide which means it potentially has a much bigger market than the iPhone and Blackberry combined. Only if Nokia does it right the first time.

Here are some of my wish list for the Ovi Store, and please add you own at the comment if you thought of something better:

• Make the Ovi Store easy to access and easy to use on all Nokia screens (S40 and S60 platforms) — it could be via a mobile-friendly website, a pre-installed widget or an app anyone can download and install on their Nokia phones (including other non-Nokia but S60 phones). If they can do it on all 3, the better.
• Allow anyone to publish content on the Ovi Store and distribute it for free. Nothing beats free. Imagine paying for a phone and getting thousands of apps for free on top of that — now that’s added value.
• If free is not viable, please make the apps very affordable — like $0.99 affordable. When I got my Nokai 5800, I scoured the web to look for free and paid apps but the ones that charges for their softwares sell them too expensive (some $50 or more) I don’t think a significant number of people would buy them.
• Provide multiple payment options or at least support Paypal payments on top of credit cards.

Nokia is already making the right step by providing a centralized repository for all mobile content. It has the potential to make owning a Nokia phone more compelling than just being able to make calls and text at 18 wpm.