Ovi might stand for 'door' in Finnish, but outside of Nokia's home territory, the brand never had all too much currency.

News that the name has been dropped, however, is being spun as less a reflection of perceived failure, more as a result of the structural changes being undertaken at Nokia as the company moves towards the practical elements of its partnership with Microsoft.

As such, Ovi has been cast aside, with the firm set to bring its marketplace, maps and music services under the Nokia banner.

Out with the old

It's a change that's likely to prove a better fit for Nokia, given the impending merger of its app store with Windows Phone Marketplace.

 

Publicly, however, the company is naturally putting a far more positive spin on things.

"The main reason for this change is so we can leverage the high-value of the Nokia master brand to better support future plans to deliver disruptive and compelling mobile experiences globally," the company revealed on its soon-to-be-renamed Ovi blog.

"The only difference consumers can expect to see is the replacement of the brand Ovi with Nokia, not only on their device software and the web but also in other places such as printed material or online media and advertisements."

Brand battles

Nokia claims the transition, which will kick off in July before rolling out across the rest of the network by the end of 2012, will be "smooth and seamless", but given some parts of the Ovi chain – such as music – only recently adopted the brand, there's plenty of potential for consumer confusion.

Nonetheless, Nokia is keen to pull focus back to its central brand as it aligns itself with Microsoft – a company that, itself, is awash with several mini-brands that will cascade across Nokia handsets in the years to come.

"It is important to reiterate that we are changing the name of our services from Ovi to Nokia, not closing them," the firm concludes.

"Our mobile services will progress along their planned development roadmaps, and will also continue to be available to consumers around the world on our devices."

[source: Nokia]