Nokia buys analytics firm to compete with Apple's App Store

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
As software development for Nokia's Ovi platform struggles to compete with Apple's iOS and App Store, the Finnish phone maker has purchased analytics firm Motally to boost its offering.



Nokia announced the deal to purchase the U.S. company on Friday. A report from the Associated Press noted that the strategic acquisition intends to boost the Ovi platform and make it more enticing by offering more to mobile software developers.



"The Finnish company says the acquisition Friday underscores its attempt to improve mobile Web browsing analytics for software developers of its Internet services, that are struggling to match competitor Apple Inc.," the report said.



Terms of the deal, including price, were not revealed. But Motally is a relatively small company with just eight employees, founded recently in 2008.



In May, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasuvuo admitted that his company has failed to make a splash in the U.S. smartphone market, while Apple has taken the industry by storm with the iPhone and its digital storefront for third-party applications, the App Store. Nokia, however, still remains the dominant force in the global market, carrying the lion's share of smartphones ales, as well as traditional cell phones.



Apple's strategy of offering services and support -- in addition to handsets -- has caused a change in shift within the smartphone industry. This week it was reported that competitor Research in Motion has been in talks with a number of ad networks for a potential acquisition. Apple kickstarted its own iAd network, projected to take up more than half of the mobile ad market this year, through the purchase of Quattro Wireless.







Much like Nokia's purchase of Motally aims to provide support for developers, the goal of Apple's iAd service is to incentivize App Store development. The Cupertino, Calif., company has said it does not expect to turn a great profit from its new advertising business, in which it takes a 40 percent cut of revenue.



While Apple bought an advertising firm to kickstart its iAd service, it has not invested in a mobile analytics firm as Nokia did this week. Instead, Apple has had contentious relationships with such companies, publicly calling one out earlier this year for obtaining device information without informing or gaining the consent of users.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 37
    For starters, they've got to lose the name Ovi.
  • Reply 2 of 37
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Yawn. All these companies should hire their own R&D departments instead of always reacting to and copying everything Apple does. It is getting really old and their share holders must be sick of the reactive management styles.



    Imagine where the industry would be if Apple had simply copied the market leaders way back when!
  • Reply 3 of 37
    oc4theooc4theo Posts: 294member
    Motally is not a mobile app developer. They only do analysis, more like snitching on app usage.



    What does Nokia need this company for? It's too late. Apple already locked snitchers out from getting any information from iOS.



    Nokia is dead in the waters. Apple will bury it in a few years.
  • Reply 4 of 37
    There bringing a knife to a gun fight.
  • Reply 5 of 37
    First of all, when I first saw the word "Motally", I read it as "Mortally".



    I figure they'll use this company to try to keep Symbian/Ovi/Meego/whatchamacallit afloat against the iOS-Android current, by letting Motally create their own form of iAd. Remember that Symbian is huge outside the US; Nokia wants to keep it that way. I suppose that there's room in the world for two or three iAd-type companies competing against each other.
  • Reply 6 of 37
    Can Nokia do one thing correctly? They don't have to give up, but seriously this isnt the step that gonna help them counter Appstore. Buying an Analytics firm and do what?
  • Reply 7 of 37
    ihxoihxo Posts: 567member
    What Nokia should do is learn from Apple.

    Do one thing correct at a time.



    But knowing Nokia they only really want a checklist of "features" so it really doesn't matter if it works or not.
  • Reply 8 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    Yawn. All these companies should hire their own R&D departments instead of always reacting to and copying everything Apple does. It is getting really old and their share holders must be sick of the reactive management styles.



    Imagine where the industry would be if Apple had simply copied the market leaders way back when!



    They don't do it for the same reason Microsoft doesn't do it... it's hard work!
  • Reply 9 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by OC4Theo View Post


    Motally is not a mobile app developer. They only do analysis, more like snitching on app usage.



    What does Nokia need this company for? It's too late. Apple already locked snitchers out from getting any information from iOS.



    Nokia is dead in the waters. Apple will bury it in a few years.





    As an employee of an analytics company with SDKs for Blackberry, iOS, and Android I have to respond here. They didn't block analytics. They just blocked what you can track. They basically blocked anything that would give away an Apple prototype unit. Their move had nothing to do with consumer privacy and everything to do with Steve being mad that mobile analytics tipped off the iPhone 4.
  • Reply 10 of 37
    paul94544paul94544 Posts: 1,027member
    Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. ?Margaret Thatcher, 1976



    That would make George W Bush's admin a socalist one wouldn't it? and clintons's not
  • Reply 11 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stevetim View Post


    There bringing a knife to a gun fight.



    I was thinking 'one foot in quicksand, the other on a banana peel', but OK.
  • Reply 12 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    Yawn. All these companies should hire their own R&D departments instead of always reacting to and copying everything Apple does. It is getting really old and their share holders must be sick of the reactive management styles.



    Imagine where the industry would be if Apple had simply copied the market leaders way back when!



    Apple would produce US made rubber boots. That's what Nokia used to be really good at.





    http://www.nokianfootwear.fi/eng/our_story/
  • Reply 13 of 37
    I just love how for years everyone poked fun at Apple, but now everyone is scratching their heads to figure out how to even compete....





    It's called strategy folks, Apple spent a LONG time building the infrastructure that supports it's solutions. And that is the major difference with Apple and everyone else. Everyone else sells products, where Apple provides a SOLUTION.
  • Reply 14 of 37
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    I?m constantly amazed by how much changed has occurred because of Apple?s entrance into this market. Whether Apple can maintain their lead is another story, but I think we can all agree that anyone who uses or will use a smartphone in the future can thank Apple for shaking up and forcing this once stagnant market to evolve or die.





    * I don?t mean marketshare as it?s improbable to be the highest when you don?t license your OS and only build higher-end devices.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mister Snitch View Post


    I was thinking 'one foot in quicksand, the other on a banana peel', but OK.



    Not to be pedantic, but wouldn?t the foot in the quicksand help you from slipping upon the banana peel and the one foot not in quicksand help you remove the other foot?
  • Reply 15 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by york2600 View Post


    As an employee of an analytics company with SDKs for Blackberry, iOS, and Android I have to respond here. They didn't block analytics. They just blocked what you can track. They basically blocked anything that would give away an Apple prototype unit. Their move had nothing to do with consumer privacy and everything to do with Steve being mad that mobile analytics tipped off the iPhone 4.



    Tracking has 'nothing to do with consumer privacy'!?



    It must be nice to create and live in your own reality..... wait, let's see, you work for a firm that....
  • Reply 16 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post




    Not to be pedantic, but wouldn?t .... the one foot not in quicksand help you remove the other foot?



    I guess you would slip on the banana peel when you try to lift it up, and thus be left with both feet in the quicksand. No?
  • Reply 17 of 37
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    ...smartphones ales.



    Is that the one found in a bar? I guess spell check can't find this one.
  • Reply 18 of 37
    joe hsjoe hs Posts: 488member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stevetim View Post


    There bringing a butter-knife to a gun fight.



    Fixed for you
  • Reply 19 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Joe hs View Post


    Fixed for you



    It's actually They're (they are) not there
  • Reply 20 of 37
    drdoppiodrdoppio Posts: 1,132member
    The motivation of this purchase -- to compete with Apple -- is nowhere to be found in Nokia's statement. I believe you're reading too much in a small purchase (8 people company) that is likely peanuts for Nokia. Here is a link to the original press release:



    http://www.nokia.com/press/press-rel...newsid=1439186
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