Nokia OVI App Wizard: How I created Unwired View App for OVI Store in 15 minutes

Staska  By on 28 Apr 10

As more and more people start accessing the Web from their phones, it’s getting ever more important for publishers to optimize our sites for mobile experience.

One way to do that – is to create a version of the site, optimized for mobile browsers. But now the other trend is emerging – stand alone apps for a site or blog, to run on Android, iPhone or Symbian OS.

The problem with the stand alone apps is, that you have to know how to make them. Or hire some who does. But, more often then not, we do not have enough resources, and/or knowledge where to start.

Now Nokia has created a better way to get your website into an OVI store as a stand alone app. OVI App Wizard.

Which is an amazing tool. To transform your blog into an OVI app, all you need to do – is register for this free service, provide the URL for your RSS feed or even several feeds, upload your site logo, customize colors, add description and … your are set.

It took me 15 minutes from start till clicking the submit button, to create a dedicated app for UnwiredView.com. And a couple of work days wait until the app was approved for publishing in OVI store. But now it’s there, and people are downloading it on Nokia phones.

The icons, descriptions, etc;  are a bit raw for now, but that’s because I thought I was just playing with the App Wizard. I certainly did not expect to get a working version of Unwired View  OVI Store app published, 15 minutes after I sat to try the Wizard out…

You can download Unwired View app from Ovi Store here.

And a shout-out to Nokia social media/marketing teams.

Why the heck do I have to find out about this amazing tool, by searching for news on a Swedish tech site? I did a google search, and, as of last Thursday there was nothing from Nokia about OVI App Wizard, while the app itself seems to be running for more then a month now?

I see WOM World picked it up now. But where is the rest of Nokia PR machine?  Even if OVI App Wizard is still in beta, and may not merit a separate press release, where’s Nokia Conversations blog post? Where’s something in Beta Labs blog and other Nokia blogs?

Why the heck would you want to keep Nokia Ovi App Wizard a secret? ;)

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  • nick

    I found out about it a few days ago – great concept. But did you have to pay a developer fee for putting your app on the store?

  • http://www.staska.net Staska

    No, I didn't. I just had to register for the app wizard, not the publisher
    program, so I didn't have to pay anything.

    Though, in the long run it can make sense to pay annual fee and register for
    publisher program, since you get more tools to work to promote your app and
    stuff.

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