Nokia's Rival to Apple's App Store Hits the U.S. - Page 2

Page 2 of 2

Nokia, however, is showing aggressive signs of fighting back. The company hinted that it may start selling branded phones later in the year, and AT&T (NYSE: T) recently became the first U.S. carrier to subsidize one of Nokia's smartphones -- the Nokia E71x, available for $99 with the standard commitment of a two-year contract.

And despite the initial stumbles with Ovi Store, Nokia is making it clear that it's serious about competing in earnest in mobile apps.

In available countries, customers can update their devices with the Ovi Store mobile application by selecting the Ovi Store icon in the Download folder on their device. The mobile client is available in English, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish and supports operator billing in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom. Globally, credit card billing is available through the mobile application and the mobile Web site.

Additional countries, languages, devices and features will be added throughout the year. AT&T plans to make Ovi Store available to its customers in the United States later this year.

Meanwhile, content providers and application developers can continue to sign up to distribute their content through Ovi Store by visiting publish.ovi.com.

"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," said Tero Ojanperä, executive vice president of Nokia services, in a statement. "Ovi Store makes shopping for content and applications easy and fun for feature phone and smartphone owners alike."

Glitches aside, at least one analyst predicts Nokia is on the right path to success.

"They are looking to get back into the U.S. market, and the store is a way to do that, as is making a big bet on services, mobile maps, music. Despite the technical difficulties, I'm sure that Nokia's app store will survive and prosper," William Stofega, a mobile analyst at IDC, told InternetNews.com.

In fact, he said the downtime reported earlier today is a reminder that Nokia is dominant in foreign markets.

"Server congestion at launch, if that's all this is, is not uncommon -- and actually not a bad problem in a way. Nobody wants performance issues, but it shows that there's a ready and willing audience," he said. "Nokia is world-facing, not only in mature markets but developing ones too, and despite their problems here, ultimately that is going to give them huge advantages in the long run, so it will be interesting to see what happens."