I don't see the attraction of Ovi services. Maybe I'm missing something. Would one of you explain, please?

I see that Ovi offers a number of useful services: file access, calendar backup, contacts backup, maps, an application store, e-mail, photo and video sharing, and a music store. All of these duplicate services I already use and am happy with. In addition, the sharing services would require my friends and family to sign up for Ovi, too, right? That's in addition to Flickr or Picasaweb or my own WebDAV box. Why would I want to switch over to Ovi's implementations?

Well you don't really need to switch to them. Stay with your current services if you are happy with them.

Don't understand why your family and friends would have to switch to them though. Anybody can check pictures and videos on Ovi. Just like I can check what others share on Flickr even though I don't have an account.