Apple beware, Nokia has launched its Ovi Store

by Stevie Smith - May 26 2009, 15:20

Likely to cause the cocking of one or two inquisitive eyebrows for the management team at Apple’s App Store, global handset titan Nokia Corp. has today officially launched its long awaited Ovi Store content download service.

Set to progressively open its virtual doors to a massive customer base boasting some 50 million compatible devices, Nokia’s new store is presently available on a select shortlist of handsets throughout the regions of Australia, Singapore and Ireland, according to the Finnish mobile phone giant.

“Ovi Store is open for business and we’ve stocked the shelves with both local and global content for a broad range of Nokia devices,” enthused Tero Ojanpera, Nokia executive vice president, in an official release.

“Ovi Store makes shopping for content and applications easy and fun for feature phone and smartphone owners alike,” he added.

Espoo-based Nokia Corp., which is the world’s biggest handset manufacturer, has said customers in a total of eight countries can peruse and purchase content and applications through the store and any downloads will appear on their phone bills.

Nokia owners located in the United States will also be granted access to the Ovi Store, but it is not expected to roll out there – likely through AT&T – until some time later in the year. The UK market is expected to receive the service before the close of this week.

Beyond the noteworthy success of Apple’s App Store, which serves the iPhone and iPod Touch and has notched up more than a billion downloads in its first nine months of service, the arrival of Nokia’s Ovi Store follows on from similar rival offerings supporting RIM’s BlackBerry handsets and Google’s Android-equipped devices.

American software company Microsoft Corp. is also expected to launch a content and application store before the close of 2009, which will provide services tailored specifically for devices carrying the mobile iteration of its Windows operating system.

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