Nokia: Apple's App Store 'is a must have' (but so are we)

I caught this post by Stuart Dredge over on Mobile Entertainment. He sat in on panel at this week’s MIPCOM event in Cannes. Stuart points out that Cedric Thomas, the chap who heads up Nokia’s Ovi services in France, delivered a delightfully direct assessment of his (and Nokia’s) suggested developer App Store strategy.

Cedric’s key statement:

– Apple is a must have in US and EU
– Nokia is key for Asian market (including China) and Europe
– Android is leading the US market and growing in EU
– BlackBerry strong in US

Stuart comments that he found Cedric’s honesty refreshing and that is represented, ‘a clear sign that Nokia has largely ditched its traditional bullishness, in favour of a more realistic appraisal of its position in the apps market.’

Agreed.

I’d like to see more of this.

The disarmingly honest approach should help the Nokia-Is-Shit crowd (i.e. most of the marketplace) recognise that whilst they’ve lost they way in the West, they are steaming ahead in what we traditionally refer to as the developing countries.

The Ovi Store is now running at an average of 2.5 million downloads per day — which, if extrapolated across 365 days, equates to just under a billion downloads. That number is only going to get larger and larger.

And what’s the make-up of those downloads?

75% of those downloads are apps and games, with games the most popular category for paid downloads, and apps the most popular for free downloads.

Keep a watch on Nokia.