Nokia launches 'location aware' Ovi app store

Nokia details new location-aware Ovi app store at Mobile World Congress 2009
Nokia details new location-aware Ovi app store at Mobile World Congress 2009

Nokia has announced its new application store, 'the Ovi store' at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world's first location-aware app store for mobile phones.

Nokia's 'smart' Ovi Store "will offer consumers relevant, targeted media through their social connections and their physical location information," claims Nokia.

"Beginning in March, content providers, developers and the existing Forum Nokia developer ecosystem can begin uploading their content at publish.ovi.com," the release adds.

Loads of relevant apps

Nokia wants to offer its customers "personally relevant, up-to-the- minute media for their devices…" including games, videos, widgets, podcasts, location-based applications and personalisation content for Nokia Series 40 and S60 devices.

The Nokia N97, releasing in June, will be the first device to include the simple and easy-to-use Ovi app store storefront.

Existing Nokia Series 40 and S60 users will also get access to Nokia's new service from early May.

Developers will get a 70 per cent cut of revenues, with major developers such as EA, Shazam, MySpace and Fox already signed up to create content for Nokia.

Major devs on board

"Ovi Store will empower consumers around the world to take better advantage of the power of mobile through a new content discovery experience," said Mauro Montanaro, CEO of Fox Mobile Group.

"We are excited to broaden our relationship with Nokia and believe Ovi will enhance our ability to take uniquely innovative content, such as from the upcoming 20th Century Fox release, Ice Age 3, and create unparalleled mobile entertainment experiences across millions of devices."

"EA Mobile has been successfully pre-loading and offering our broad range of games to Nokia consumers around the world for many years" adds Javier Ferreira, VP Publishing Europe, EA Mobile.

"We are very enthusiastic about the new Ovi Store as it combines ease of discovery, relevancy and recommendation which are essential in any quality content offering."

Now check out 'Is there a point to Nokia Ovi?'

Adam Hartley
Latest in Websites & Apps
Quordle on a smartphone held in a hand
Quordle hints and answers for Wednesday, March 5 (game #1136)
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, March 5 (game #367)
Quordle on a smartphone held in a hand
Quordle hints and answers for Tuesday, March 4 (game #1135)
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, March 4 (game #366)
Quordle on a smartphone held in a hand
Quordle hints and answers for Monday, March 3 (game #1134)
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, March 3 (game #365)
Latest in News
CorelDraw Go homepage showing design examples
Adobe arch-rival unveils online graphic design tool for beginners - and yes, it has a subscription
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 promo image featuring the Doom Slayer glaring at Tony
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 is real and the Digital Deluxe Edition literally turns it into a Doom game
Ada Lovelace as a leader in Civilization 7.
Sid Meier's Civilization 7 update 1.1.0 finally stops AI leaders from flooding your territory with armies of explorers
OnePlus Watch 3
Good news for OnePlus fans as it confirms the OnePlus Watch 3 will get three years of updates, not two
Image of Radeon RX 9000 series GPUs
AMD RX 9070 could struggle to compete with Nvidia 50-series GPUs according to latest tech demo
A laptop with a red screen with a white skull on it with the message: "RANSOMWARE. All your files are encrypted."
Major ransomware attack sees Tata Technologies hit - 1.4TB dataset with over 730,000 files allegedly stolen