It was designed to be an umbrella brand as Nokia attempted to expand into software and Internet services instead of just mobile hardware.

[2] Ovi focused on five key service areas offered by Nokia: Games, Maps, Media, Messaging and Music.

[3][4] It was initially available for internet-enabled Nokia feature phones and S60 smartphones, and also accessible via the Web and on PC, via Ovi Suite.

Acquired IP, patents include companies such as Starfish Software, Intellisync, NAVTEQ, Gate5, Plazes and others.

[6] Nokia's aim with Ovi was to include third party developers, such as operators and third-party services like Yahoo's Flickr photo site.

[9] Here, customers could download mobile games, applications, videos, images, and ringing tones to their Nokia devices.

The content in Ovi Store was sorted into the categories: Featured (previously Recommended), Games, Personalise, Applications, and Audio & Video.

[10][11] Ovi Store was intended to offer customers content that was compatible with their mobile devices and relevant to their tastes and locations.

Supported content types included: Java ME, Flash applications, widgets, ringtones, wallpapers, themes, and more for Nokia Series 40 and Symbian S60 devices and also Symbian^3.

[17] Ovi Suite allows Nokia mobile users to organize and share their photos and PIM data between their PC and their handset.

Nokia has announced on the Ovi website that web access to contact information will be discontinued on 25 January 2012.

Nokia stated that this download capability will remain via URL contactsui.ovi.com even after web access to contact data has ended.

Ovi Mail is an email address designed for access from Nokia mobile devices and compatible desktop browsers.

The web mail works with standard browsers such as Opera, IE 6, IE 7, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, and Google Chrome and was available in 15 languages: US English, UK English, Indonesian, Malay, Bengali, Filipino (Tagalog), French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simple), Portuguese (Portugal), and Spanish (Spain).

[30] Depending on the user's tariffs for sending SMS text messages vs. connecting to the Internet from the mobile phone, using instant messaging can prove to be either significantly cheaper (volume-based data plan) or significantly more expensive (time-based data plan).

Users can upload media directly from Nokia mobile phones through the Share Online 3.0 application, or can alternatively use their PCs.

Supplemental features enabled users to upload content to their remote computer and preview Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF documents without the need for a browser plug-in or locally installed application.

Ovi Files was based on the "Access and Share" service created by Avvenu Incorporated, which Nokia acquired [32] on 5 December 2007.

The store was available in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom with more countries launching regularly.

[35] It was later renamed to Nokia Music Store and was available in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Finland, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.

Publishers of content, or Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), may join the Ovi programme for a fee of 1 €.