One of the most exciting announcements made at the ongoing Mobile Web Congress happening in Barcelona was Nokia’s new mobile content application service called Ovi Store. According to Nokia, the Ovi Store will integrate all its current mobile content services, Download, MOSH and WidSets into the Ovi Store. And to make things more interesting the Nokia is also opening the Ovi Store’s door to third-party mobile phone applications developer through revenue sharing similar to Apple’s policy with its Apps Store.
From the looks of it, the Nokia Ovi Store is a promising endeavour for Nokia and if carried out properly, Nokia may have something good in the offing for their mobile product offerings. Nokia mobile phones continue to be the most widely used mobile phone devices worldwide despite having less clout in the American market. Elsewhere, Nokia still dominates the mobile phone market, especially in Asian countries.
So, if Nokia could come up with a mobile content and applications store as good as Apple’s iTunes Apps Store, you can just imagine how big its consumers will be. Nokia mobile phones market share is still bigger than the iPhone despite the huge success that Apple’s mobile device has gained since it was launched. And if Nokia’s Ovi Store could offer something as robust as the iTunes Apps Store plus other mobile stuff, then it could very well give the iTunes Apps Store a run for its money.
Can Nokia’s Ovi Store compete with iTunes Apps Store? Probably yes. But could third party application developers come up with good applications for Nokia’s mobile phones, or could Nokia phones handle sophisticated mobile applications? Those are the proper question to ask. And the answers are yet to be ascertained.