After the success of Apple's App Store, it seems other companies have noticed the benefits that such an offering can have on business. Other companies such as Palm, Google and Nokia have their own offerings, the latter releasing theirs fully just today.
The Ovi Store initially went live first in Australia, Ireland and Singapore, but Engadget is reporting that every area which supports access to the store can now get just that; the Ovi Store has launched with 20,000 "items", which is an impressive figure compared to some others. It isn't clear whether those items are applications or otherwise, but expect that to be clarified very soon, now that access is available. Nokia's executive vice president, Tero Ojanperä, has said, "Ovi Store is open for business and we've stocked the shelves with both local and global content for a broad range of Nokia devices. Ovi Store makes shopping for content and applications easy and fun for feature phone and smartphone owners alike."
Though things may not be all rainbows and happiness; Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight, has stated, "Nokia's Ovi store is a step in the right direction but Apple is still the king of the hill when it comes to selling applications. The long awaited arrival of Nokia's Ovi Store lacks the blaze of publicity Apple was able to achieve when its App Store burst onto the market – Nokia is going to have to spend a small fortune on marketing to make consumers aware of what it is offering." If Nokia is to turn their offering into a truly successful one, experts say that Nokia needs to put emphasis on the social aspect to the store; they will need to show off the way users can rate applications and recommend them to others.
If you have a Nokia device, please head to the Ovi Store website to check it out, and be sure to fire back in the comments on how everything goes.
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