Ovi Store’s dapper downloads Tweet

GLOBAL – Three out of every four of the 1.7 million downloads per day on Ovi Store is an app. Whilst some might have once viewed Ovi Store as the host of ringtones and wallpapers, it’s quickly becoming apparent that apps and games are driving the success of the service. Earlier this week, we highlighted Offscreen Technologies‘ success of 25 million downloads of its various touch-based apps. This week also saw SMS Preview hit the 1 million downloads milestone, joining the likes of Shazam, Nimbuzz and games from Polarbit. Digital Chocolate is celebrating its success in hitting over 4 million downloads by dropping the prices on a selection of its games to zero for April and May. Not bad, for what’s still a pretty new service.

Through Ovi Store’s continuing evolution we’ve seen the service grow both in terms of popularity and in functionality. Behind it sits a team working feverishly behind the scenes to bring new improvements and functionality to Ovi Store. For users this means faster and better access to the apps they want most. For developers this means an ever-increasing audience of users waiting to download something new and cool.

Getting apps on there is getting easier and faster for developers. Forum Nokia plays host to myriad tools and guides on getting widgets and apps built to work across the wide range of Nokia devices (if you haven’t signed up for the Forum Nokia Newsletter, we’d highly recommend it) including an excellent section on Design and User Experience. This kind of support is vital to make it easier for developers to create a single app which can be rolled out across myriad devices. Tools are becoming available too for publishers who want to make mobile app versions of their websites (more on that next week) without any HTML knowledge.

One of the most exciting aspects of Ovi Store is it’s wide availability. It’s virtually the only place to go where you can tap into a truly global audience of mobile users. With mobile billing through 66 operators in 19 countries around the world, and general availability in every country where a device is sold, it offers a fantastic infrastructure for developers to reach users. What’s really interesting, though, is that the average active user downloads eight items per month from the Ovi Store. You don’t need to be a genius to figure out the maths on that one.

It’s still early days for Ovi Store. The service is less than a year old (just) and already it’s ticking success boxes on a regular basis. With a solid infrastructure now in place, a huge audience to tap into and an ever increasing bevy of apps and games to download, the stage is set for a service that will quickly become not just a contender, but a serious force to be reckoned with. And we can’t wait.

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