Nokia has opened the doors to its online mobile application and content store, a rival to Apple’s hugely successful App Store it is calling Ovi Store.
It will eventually offer a range of content including applications, games, videos, widgets, podcasts, location-based applications and personalised content, when it goes live globally later this week.
Over 20,000 applications are expected to be available from Ovi Store, which will be available on Symbian-based S60 and Series 40 devices.
It is claimed to have an addressable base of 50 million handsets from launch, and is available in certain territories already.
The company has confirmed that Ovi Store will target users with tailored content, based on their current location.
It will also recommend content and applications using a social discovery feature to highlight those applications or games that friends and family or people participating in social networks are using, or consider relevant and worth recommending.
The phone-maker hit some turbulence in its first quarter, and is hoping an appetite for mobile apps will help sustain future demand.
The company reported a 90% decline in profit to €122m ($161m) for the first quarter 2009, compared to €1.22 billion ($1.61 billion) in the year-ago quarter, on revenue down 27% at €9.27 billion ($12.26 billion).
The company has announced plans to cut approximately 1,700 jobs in a bid to counter the decline in demand.
Apple meanwhile has been going from strength-to-strength and the company can now claim a 11% slice of the smartphone market thanks to the popularity of its iPhone line and the supporting App Store. There have been over a billion applications downloaded from Apple’s App Store since it opened last year.
