Nokia today announced that its Ovi Store has reached 3 million downloads per day, a milestone spurred by overall global demand and a recent update that gives users of Nokia’s new Symbian smartphone family a friendlier look and feel as well as more popular apps and games. The company is also gaining significant software developer momentum with more than 400,000 signing on to Nokia in the past 12 months, and 92 surpassing the million download milestone for their apps.
In related news, the Nokia Qt Software Development Toolkit (SDK) and the Qt SDK combined have been downloaded 1.5 million times as developers discover this approach can improve the speed and efficiency of creating apps for mobile devices, including smartphones such as the new Nokia N8, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6-01, which are shipping, and the recently announced Nokia E7. In a strategic move last month, Nokia announced unified application development around the Qt framework to simplify creating apps for Symbian-based devices and products that will be powered by the new MeeGo operating system. Developer video testimonials for the Qt framework are available at Forum.Nokia.com.
Examples of popular and creative new Symbian smartphone content on Ovi Store include:
· Swype: With one continuous finger or stylus motion across the keyboard, Swype ’s technology enables users to input words faster and easier.
· NHL GameCenter™ Premium: Keep up with your favorite hockey team by listening to live radio, checking stats and scores, or by watching highlights and condensed games.
· WhatsApp Messenger: A smartphone messaging app that uses 3G or WiFi to connect with friends and family. Switch from SMS to WhatsApp to send and receive messages, pictures, audio notes, and video messages at no cost.
Since Nokia began shipments of its new Symbian smartphones, starting with the Nokia N8 on Sept. 30 of this year, the top downloaded free app globally was Q Torch, a utility app that turns your device into a flashlight, by CellApp Technology of India (also among top three in Europe, India and Southeast Asia/Pacific); the top downloaded paid app was Angry Birds, the smash hit game, by Rovio Mobile of Finland (also among top three in North America, Southeast Asia/Pacific and Europe) and the third most popular item downloaded globally was Need for Speed Shift HD, a game that delivers the thrill of high-performance racing by EA Mobile of the U.S. (also among top three in Central and South America, and Southeast Asia/Pacific).
Break-out information on the most popular regional apps and their developers is available at Forum.Nokia.com.
Quotes
“The rapid growth on Ovi Store to pass the 1 billion annualized downloads mark demonstrates that Nokia is a competitor in both scale and size when it comes to its services,” said Scott Ellison, vice president of mobile and consumer connected platforms at IDC. “With Nokia’s stronger focus on the Qt platform and improved developer ecosystem, Nokia should continue to see its developer numbers increase as developers see profit from new revenue shares, operator billings and the ever-growing user base around the world.”
“Without any promotion or marketing dollars, in a few weeks we’ve hit 200,000 downloads in Ovi Store faster than we did with App Store,” said Anton Gauffin, CEO of BLStream, creator of the game Crazy Hamster. “We’re very positively surprised with what we’ve seen on Ovi, and we’re on track to exceed our App Store performance even though we’ve been there longer.”
“Ovi Store is on a strong trajectory fueled by new apps and games from a growing number of partners and more than 250,000 new consumers signing up for Ovi every day,” said Tero Ojanperä, executive vice president, Services, Nokia. “The number of daily downloads has increased from about 2 million to 3 million since September. We anticipate our progress will continue as we have just begun shipping our new Symbian smartphones.”
