Nokia, not that popular in the US but the current standard of the world for phones, has an application store they call Ovi. I can access this store on any of my Nokia phones (I have two current ones) and download applications, just like I can on my iPhone. AT&T announced today that customers using the Ovi Store with the Nokia E71x, Surge, Mural, 6650, 6555, or 6350 are now able to purchase paid content by charging their monthly AT&T bill directly. More devices will be compatible, according to the announcement, but no word on when that’ll be.
What does this mean for ebooks? Potentially a lot. Today we posted a story about Vodaphone teaming up to start its own ebook store in the UK. Why not AT&T? This deal with Nokia means that AT&T is putting the back end in place to handle transactions like this. AT&T also announced it would be standardizing on Qualcomm’s Brew platform for its lower end phones. Wattpad will you be talking to AT&T? AT&T also announced it would be releasing a slew of Android phones – another possibility for ebooks.
Ereaders and mythical tablets are fine, but I will put my ereading money on the phone, both smart and dumb, in the long term.
Re: Wattpad, will you be talking to AT&T?
You bet!