Fixed Mobile Convergence

Mobile devices major Nokia (News - Alert) announced that Ovi Store grew by nearly eight times over the last year and achieved 5 million downloads per day.

The growth in download is fuelled by the latest Symbian (News - Alert) devices including the Nokia N8, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7 and Nokia E7 which account for about 15 percent of the daily downloads.

There is an increase in demand for apps from the approximate 200 million Symbian consumer base. The demand assisted the Ovi Store catalogue to grow to more than 40,000 apps, with about 1,000 added per week. One hundred fifty eight developers from 41 countries are surpassing the million download milestone each for their apps.

“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, executive vice president of Services and Developer Experience, Nokia, in a statement.

“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 (News - Alert),” Ojanpera added.

Ovi Store has seen integrated operator billing increase consumer transactions by up to four times. Nokia's programs for in-app billing and in-app advertising will offer more revenue opportunities for developers on Symbian.

Nokia's monetization opportunities for developers include integrated operator billing with 112 operators in 36 markets, more than 25 times more operator billing integrations than Nokia's nearest competitor.

Recently, mobile ad network Greystripe announced support for Nokia’s Ovi store. Greystripe offers rich media ads through its ad network. It has seen considerable success with its iPhone (News - Alert) platform.