Nokia's Ovi Store: Put that in your pipe and smoke it, doubters!
So I’ve been pretty vocal about Nokia’s Ovi Store. I was vocal (positively) when it launched. I was vocal (negatively) when it really began to frustrate me (silly little bugs that we letting it down) and I’ve been rather delighted at the company’s continued success with the platform ever since.
I’ve been banging the drum for the platform. Although I’m sure a few folk at Nokia don’t quite believe it. I remember back in 2009 — or was it 2010? — I gave a presentation to the TechCrunch Europe GeeknRolla event making it clear that Ovi would go places — that download figures would increase, that developers would start to make money from it.
I’m pleased to have been right! 😉
In recent times I’ve been enjoying getting the milestone releases. The next one is just in today. The headline figure? 5 million downloads a day, 40,000 applications in the store — and more than 158 developers have done 1 million+ downloads already.
It’s working!
Here’s the full release. Have a look at some of the statistics (I’ve bolded some points I think are key).
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Nokia’s Ovi Store hits 5 million downloads per day as users enjoy new Symbian devices and apps
– Up to 5 million downloads per day
– More than 40 000 apps represents nearly eight-fold growth in one year
– 158 developers pass 1 million downloads each
Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced that its Ovi Store has grown by nearly eight times over the last year and now reaches up to 5 million downloads per day, propelled by the latest Symbian devices – the Nokia N8, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7 and Nokia E7 – which account for about 15 percent of the daily downloads.
Increased demand for apps from the approximate 200-million-strong Symbian consumer base has seen the Ovi Store catalogue grow to more than 40 000 apps, with about 1 000 added per week. This momentum has resulted in 158 developers from 41 countries now surpassing the million download milestone each for their apps.
Nokia’s new monetization opportunities for developers are tailored for local markets and include integrated operator billing with 112 operators in 36 markets, more than 25 times more operator billing integrations than Nokia’s nearest competitor. Ovi Store has seen integrated operator billing increase consumer transactions by up to four times and this, coupled with Nokia’s beta programs for in-app billing and in-app advertising, means more revenue opportunities for developers on Symbian.
These opportunities are also being extended to Nokia Series 40 devices, which will enable apps for the next billion mobile phone consumers. The refreshed Ovi Store experience, previously available only for the new Symbian devices, has resulted in more than 35 percent growth in downloads for Series 40 devices in the last two months, making up about a quarter of the total downloads.
Developers and publishers, large and small, are using Ovi Store’s global reach and rapid growth to cultivate new communities. These communities are driven by deeper user connections within their apps, further driving downloads and potential monetization opportunities for developers.
Developer examples:
Singapore developer Breakdesign, created its Barking Seed site as an independent mobile gaming community built for players using Nokia Symbian and Series 40 devices. The site tracks top scores, lets gamers compete with other top players around the world and host contests to win Nokia devices and accessories. In just over a year, Breakdesign has reached more than 6.5 million downloads and more than 70,000 members in more than 170 countries. Its top Flash games found on Barking Seed are That Roach Game South Africa, Ninjani – Emperors Revenge, and Dawn of the Fly Chapter 1 and 2.
Denmark’s Gedda-Headz has built a mobile social gaming community for Java supporting Nokia devices. It blends multiplayer head-to-head gaming and in-game chat and challenges to offer players a unique mobile experience. High scores and player rankings are determined by game play and their gaming experience can be enhanced with the purchase of virtual goods. Through Ovi Store’s scale, Gedda-Headz has reached more than 1.3 million downloads in more than 190 countries.
Moodagent, created by the Danish based Syntonetic, is an intelligent music mobile app that uses cloud-based technology to automatically select music and create playlists based on a user’s mood. It also allows them to share their mood and music with their network on Facebook and Twitter. To date, the number of Nokia Moodagent users has reached more than 4 million from Ovi Store and the total number of Nokia user tracks in the Moodagent cloud is more than 4 billion. Both of these numbers are expected to grow even more with its recent availability for Series 40 devices and the soon to be released Moodagent 3.0, with all the same great features of the original app plus music recommendation.
Quotes
“As consumers continue to download Ovi Store content with increasing frequency, developers have an immediate opportunity to reach consumers worldwide and capitalize on the approximately 150 million Symbian devices we plan to ship in the coming years,” said Tero Ojanpera, Nokia’s Executive Vice President of Services and Developer Experience. “This momentum continues to demonstrate consumers’ appetite for Nokia’s global and locally relevant apps, and will help us plan the future apps store experience for improved and new Symbian devices, as well as Nokia smartphones based on the planned collaborative opportunities with Microsoft.
“Nokia’s Ovi Store has given our Angry Birds a fighting chance to defeat those havoc-wrecking green pigs and share the joys of clearing levels from every corner of the globe,” said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio. “We look forward to continuing development for Nokia’s latest Symbian devices and working with Nokia and the future of the Windows Phone platform.”
“In about a year, Nokia’s Ovi Store has gone from approximately 1 million downloads per day to up to 5 million downloads per day today, and the velocity appears to be increasing, fueled largely by Series 40 and new Symbian devices,” said Josh Martin, senior analyst, Strategy Analytics. “At this new rate, that’s nearly 2 billion annualized downloads and with the company’s new direction, app developers can surely capitalize on this grow
