Nokia shuts door on services brand Ovi

Nokia's new management will dump its Ovi services brand in favour of its company name across its offerings, the world's largest cellphone maker by volume said on Monday.

Nokia launched the brand in August 2007 for services such as maps and music offerings at a high-profile event in central London, at a time when it dominated the wireless industry with around 40%market share of handset sales.

"This move dismantles Nokia's dedicated Ovi services brand which was a cornerstone of the former management's services strategy," said Ben Wood, head of research at British wireless consultancy CCS Insight.                                           

The brand Ovi, Finnish for door, spearheaded Nokia's push into services, a key strategy of previous CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. At its height analysts estimated Ovi-branded services would contribute 2 euros per share to the value of the group.

Nokia has scaled down several Ovi services over the past year and is focusing mostly on location-linked offerings.

Nokia said it would start to rebrand its Ovi services from July.  "The reasons for this decision includes the fact that Nokia is a well-known and highly-loved brand the world over. Our mobile experiences are tightly integrated with our devices -- there is no longer a differentiation," Nokia''s marketing chief Jerri deVard said in a statement. The value of the Nokia brand fell 28% last year to $10.7 billion, according to branding agency Millward Brown.