Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Developer Satisfaction
SUMMARY
Nokia’s Ovi Store was launched a little over one year ago, May 26th 2009. Almost
immediately the company issued a statement apologizing to users who were unable to
access the service due to “...extraordinarily high spikes of traffic...”1 Since then there have
been substantial improvements and the store no longer suffers from the kinds of outages
reported just after its launch. And volume has continued to scale with downloads passing
1.7 million daily in April.2
Developers recognize the improvements over the past year and more than 80% said they
would be sticking with Nokia and Ovi with the expectation that their experience would
continue to improve. But having 20% of Nokia’s “top” developers suggest that they would
leave Ovi is certainly a sign of trouble ahead if remaining problems are not addressed, and
developers were quick to offer advice on what Nokia must do to keep them engaged.
Number one, and perhaps the most perplexing amongst developers identified by Nokia as
“best sellers,” was a concern about how many downloads these developers were actually
getting, and the money they were making as a result. Amongst developers selling their
application less than 20% of developers were either making as much as they had expected
or more and over 80% complained that they were making less, and some “far less,” then
they had anticipated (see section 9 of this report). In a competitive marketplace with
Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone luring developers away from Nokia, this has to be
Nokia’s number one concern although developers offered many additional suggestions
when asked about specific areas of the store and when given the opportunity to make open
comments about how Nokia might improve Ovi (see section 14 of this report).
Out of the total number of responses received, 20 publishers were interviewed over the
phone, while the other 80 publishers responded to an online questionnaire.
The respondents to this survey were not randomly selected but were found through a
search for top selling and top free Nokia apps for the 5800 XpressMusic, 5530
XpressMusic, E71, E72, 2700, E61, E63, 7210 SuperNova, 3120 CLASSIC, N73, and N97
Nokia devices. 350 developers were identified through this process.
Participants answered questions about their experience with Ovi Store. The survey focused
on four areas:
1. Publishing
How satisfied are they with the registration process in Ovi Store?
How satisfied are they with the content submission process in Ovi Store?
How satisfied are they with the content editing process in Ovi Store?
How satisfied are they with the timing of the quality assurance process in Ovi Store?
2. Support
How satisfied are they with the support given to them by Ovi Store?
How satisfied are they with the support provided by Ovi Store to purchasers of their
software?
What problems did they encounter with Ovi Store?
Out of all the support inquiries they receive, how many are related to a problem with Ovi?
What are the most common support inquiries they receive?
3. Revenues
Are they earning more or less money that they had anticipated, and why?
How satisfied are they with the reports downloadable from Ovi?
How satisfied are they with the accuracy of reported revenues compared to actual
revenues?
39% of respondents said they were satisfied with the overall registration process in Ovi
Store. No major issues encountered while registering were reported, although 3% of
publishers think that developers shouldn't be charged for publishing.
While 40% of respondents said they were less than “somewhat satisfied” with the overall
process for publishing content to Ovi, the remaining 59% said they were satisfied with the
overall process and didn't have any complaints.
The most common comments and reported issues about the registration process include:
• Issues with the certification process being “complicated”
• Issues with Ovi Store rejecting apps for incorrect reasons; unclear QA
requirements; long QA process
• Uploaded content taking a while to be visible on the store
• Management and selection/setup of different languages, countries and mobile
platforms being complex.
Other comments on the lack of communication from Nokia in the QA process phase were
“You don't get any feedback/recommendations on what can be improved when an app is
rejected.”
“The results from the QA process can need follow-up questions and discussion, and it is not
clear how to actually proceed with such issues.”
In general, a frequent comment provided by those who were unhappy with the Content
Submission process was: “The whole process is painful with unnecessary steps and
prerequisites.”
45% of respondents said they were less than “somewhat satisfied” with the Content Editing
Process in Ovi Store. The most common problem they encounter while editing their content
in Ovi Store has to do with the long time it takes them to get their changes approved –
especially when the changes and updates are relatively small. Publishers think this process
should be improved and Ovi should allow for updates and minor changes to be done quickly
and without having to go through the whole content submission process.
When specifically asked about their satisfaction with the TIMING of the QA process, 65% of
respondents said they were neutral or dissatisfied. In general, they complained that the QA
system is slow and very little information is provided or communication is “inconsistent.”
Some said the timing “isn't bad but could be faster for minor updates,” and suggested a
priority system for more important issues to be solved quickly. Some others said the timing
isn't “the shortest time compared to other stores.”
Another comment was: “The approval process for new apps is quick enough but then apps
aren't immediately published.”
13% of respondents said they have never asked for support while using Ovi Store. Of the
remaining respondents who have asked for support, 20% said they weren't satisfied nor
dissatisfied with it.
37% of the respondents who have asked for support said they were unhappy with the way
Nokia handles support to Ovi Store publishers. These publishers reported issues such as
slow or no replies, unclear replies, not visible or insufficient contact information.
“I had to search for Ovi support email address for help. It should be mentioned in header/
footer for help after log-in to Ovi publisher account.”
“I had to send 4 emails to get a response. Even then they did not solve my problem and I
am still waiting.”
13% of total respondents reported that more than 10% of all support inquiries are related to
problems with Ovi. The remaining 87% of respondents said they receive a few (less than
10%) or no support inquiries related to Ovi.
7. What's the most common support inquiry that you receive from purchasers of your
software on Ovi Store?
According to respondents, the most common support inquiries related to Ovi are:
• Payment issues
• Download/Installation issues
• Software operating issues
• Issues with searching/finding apps in Ovi
• Purchasers are often unable to understand the product's use from the very short
description and the small screenshots provided by Ovi Store
• Upgrade issues
• Purchasers cannot re-download apps after resetting their phones or if software can't
be found in the phone after the first download (even if they paid for it)
• Incompatibility issues with some devices and in certain countries.
90% of respondents are familiar with the Nokia Online Community's Discussion Boards for
developers. When we asked publishers to rate their satisfaction with the Discussion Boards
on a scale from 1 to 7, the average answer was 4.66.
Publishers didn't provide any insightful feedback or comments on the Discussion Boards but
the majority of them don’t seem to be unhappy with them overall.
57% of those surveyed are selling their applications in Ovi, while the remaining respondents
distribute their applications for free.
Of all the respondents who are selling their apps, 80.7% said they're making LESS money
on Ovi that they had expected.
When asked what are the reasons why they think this is happening, they mentioned the
following:
• Inadequate visibility / search ability of paid apps in Ovi
(Interviewed publishers indicated this as the main reason for low sales)
• Inadequate categorization of apps in Ovi - that makes it hard to find them
• Ovi client not working properly on some devices
• Nokia users not being used to paying for apps
• Ovi not having enough visitors
• Operators' share, taxes and Ovi's share being too much (and forcing publishers
to set higher prices which decrease consumer purchases)
On the visibility issue, publishers said they're unhappy with the tools provided by Ovi to
promote paid apps in Ovi.
Some also said “the new easy widgets from Ovi allow people to upload RSS apps into the
store within 24h, that's faster than what real apps can be approved and the store is flooded
with those apps and premium apps soon disappear in the crowd.”
7 respondents said they make less money in Ovi that they make by selling the same apps in
other app stores. 3 respondents said they are earning much less than they used to earn
with Nokia Software Market.
8% of respondents said they are not familiar with the reports downloadable from Ovi.
Of the remaining respondents who said they are familiar with these reports, 64% are happy
with them while 21% aren't satisfied with these reports and think the reports:
• Could be more detailed and include: demographic data, page views, etc.
• Could be updated more often with new data
• Could be available in more formats.
When asked how the sales reports reconcile with the payments they receive from Nokia for
sold apps, publishers either replied that they don't pay much attention to that OR said the
lag between the actual sales and the payment makes it impossible to compare the two.
15% of interviewed publishers said they rate Ovi as “average,” while 43% of them said they
are less than satisfied with Ovi and 42% said they are somewhat satisfied / satisfied / very
satisfied with Ovi.
A common comment on the overall satisfaction with Ovi was that while they're quite happy
with the UI, the fact that they're making less money than expected makes them overall less
than satisfied with Ovi.
In general, the majority of them seemed to think that Ovi has been improving over time.
30% of respondents said they're not currently using any other app stores, while the
remaining 70% are using other stores. The most frequently used stores are:
• Apple's app store, iTunes, iStore
• BlackBerry App World
• Handango
• PlayNow
• Windows Marketplace
• GetJar
• Android Market
• Samsung Apps
• Ericsson eStore
42.25% of respondents using other app stores said they think Nokia's Ovi Store is BELOW
AVERAGE, while 36.62% think Ovi is average and 21.13% think Ovi is ABOVE average.
Some of the reasons why they think Ovi is below average are:
• The QA process for Ovi takes longer and the communication process with the
testing team is worse
• Ovi Store is less smooth and easy to use than other stores (e.g. Apple)
• The same applications sell less on Ovi than they sell in other stores.
• Promotion
“They should make it easier to promote your apps in store, yet filter the junk better”
“Much more and better promotion is needed, e.g. including daily apps in Ovi store,
highlights, rankings”
“Implement a 'rotative advertising' for apps so that each developer gains time
chunks with more visibility in Ovi channel”
“To allow ad-networks without restriction, in order to be able to earn money from free
apps”
“Possibility to update apps and notify users who have them installed”
• Reporting
Ability to know who and when the app was bought
Faster on time statistics for new published content so that developers can react
faster to results
• Development
“Standardize on development tools and handset capabilities”
“Have less phone models so we wouldn't have to worry about what models support
our software”
“The content protection scheme must change. It is just too easy to pirate games
from Ovi.”
• Publishing
“Make uploading applications much more convenient and review for submission take
a shorter time”
• Support
Improve the feedback time to questions and inquiries “through the contact us in the
publisher console.”
• End Users
Give developers possibility to comment on (user) reviews;
Introduce more robust user review capabilities and the ability for users to request
support directly to the publishers
Improve the web store and enhance Ovi on device -- “The Ovi client must improve
its user experience. It is slow, unresponsive, and it is hard to navigate through
content.”
Find other ways to accept payments (“Not only CC and operator billing. Maybe use
Ukash.com”)
Introduce an easier payment system “Store your credit card once, just click to buy
later. As in iPhone.”
”Make Ovi store appealing not for publishers only, but first of all for customers!”
81% of respondents said they are going to keep using Ovi Store, not necessarily because
they are happy with the store as it is today, but because they cannot avoid using it and
because they're seeing improvements.
Our services today include strategy, product development, business development, creative,
and technology support.
The core team comes from a variety of disciplines in technology, marketing, and corporate
communications:
Ted has spent the past 20 years working in the high tech industry, as a software developer
and executive in both public and privately held companies. Most recently Ted developed a
new participatory media platform called The Personal Bee, which was acquired by
Technorati in early 2007. Ted has been active in re-envisioning Technorati's product
roadmap and business strategy and as a part of this effort created The Conversation Group
as a key Technorati partner. Prior roles include Chief Strategy Officer of Borland Software
and Senior VP of Sales and Marketing for WhoWhere.
Eoin Russell has over a decade of experience developing and managing global web and
mobile destinations. He lead the strategy and implementation of Nokia’s MOSH site and the
Ovi store. MOSH, a website for user generated mobile content, became a top 500 site with
over 100 million items downloaded within two years of its launch. Ovi Store, Nokia’s
application store, is set to become the largest content distribution channel on the planet
reaching hundreds of millions of devices within the next two years. Before joining Open-First
Eoin was a partner interaction design agency Schematic, where he ran their London office.
Mark Adams has spent nearly 20 years in technology marketing and 10 in corporate
finance. He co-founded the global technology PR firm, Text100, which grew to become Next
Fifteen Communications, owner of other marketing communications operations such as Bite
and OutCast, and which is listed on London's AIM stock market. He is now a Partner with
Pembridge Partners LLP, a UK-based finance and investment firm specializing in the media,
Andreas currently lectures at Stanford University and the University of California Berkeley
on “the consumer data revolution” and advises companies in his role with Open-First.
Originally a physicist by training, Andreas was attracted to the financial world due to his
deep fascination with how numerical information can be used in decision-making. As the
consumer Internet gained market acceptance in the mid-1990s, Andreas saw that even
vaster pools of information were being created within the early e-commerce companies. As
Chief Scientist for Amazon, Andreas oversaw the development of an extensive customer
information system that powers Amazon’s well-regarded recommendation engine and
informs Amazon’s corporate decision making.
As companies are increasingly relying upon relationships with third party developers to
extend their market research and product innovation strategies, they must also learn to
focus on the development of these ecosystems as an opportunity to bring value to all of the
participants. Evaluating the satisfaction of developers in these ecosystems is an important
measurement tool for companies interested in improving the success of such programs.
Our staff conducts monthly reviews of the primary three mobile application marketplaces in
order to provide a benchmark for the industry on how successful these programs are and
how they compare with one another. We also conduct private research for companies
interested in understanding how their own developer programs are faring.
This is just one part of our Developer Catalyst program in which we help companies
accelerate their success in creating, promoting, and operating successful developer
programs.
CONTACT US:
Open-First
695 High Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301
mobilereports@open-first.com