Nokia started the rollout of its Ovi Store this weekend, first launching in Singapore, and then slowly adding additional countries, such as Australia, Ireland and Spain. By early morning, it was live around the world. Back at Nokia’s offices, George Linardos (pictured, right), one of the central figures behind the launch, was watching a world map on a flat-screen TV. As each individual used the store, a green light blinked on in that country. The spots were sporadic at first, but now the world has a steady glow with people in 109 countries using the service, he told mocoNews in an interview today. The rollout was not without glitches. As the traffic ramped up, performance problems ensued, but were mostly resolved early in the day.

The Ovi Store is important for Nokia as it goes head-to-head with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), which in less than a year has racked up more than a billion downloads and now offers more than 35,000 apps. It’s unclear how Nokia will stack up, especially with increasing competition coming from BlackBerry, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft. On one hand, it has size—it is a behemoth in mobile. But that also has its downsides. While every app in Apple’s store works on every iPhone, Nokia’s store at launch is much more complicated. It supports more than 60 devices, comes in five languages and has support for operator billing in eight countries. If any company has the scale and dedication to deal with this potential fragmentation, perhaps it is Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Linardos: “We’ll continue to be…relentless with this one. This is the beginning of the push.”

Linardos provided some early feedback on what users are doing during the first 12 hours of the service. The first-ever download occurred in Singapore, where WorldMate, a travel assistant, was purchased. In Spain, the first download was the free Flashlight app (which helps you see in the dark by lighting up your screen). In the U.S., the AP News app was No. 1. Also popular so far are the Nokia-sponsored Star Trek ringtones. Linardos: “I always felt that with the service, there was the range from short-tail to long-tail stuff. There’s a promotion for a blockbuster hit for Paramount Pictures to an app that turns a phone into flashlight.”

But as users went to the website on the phone or via a computer, it slowed, creating a poor experience. TechCrunch was perhaps the most critical and called it “an utter disaster.” Linardos: “This is the beginning of the rollout. This is an iterative process, and it has way exceeded expectations on where we would be at this point. It’s going to iterate and more and more content will be added. If we stay on the trajectory we are on, we are very excited on where this is going.”

He admits that not everything is running smoothly. “There’s tinkering to do. With all of these countries, and all these devices, we are finding that a piece of content doesn’t work here, and a little thing doesn’t work there. We are capturing all those things and continue to bang around the clock on polishing.” Included in that are some of the big promises of Ovi, such as seeing applications based on your location, or seeing what your friends are purchasing to create a viral approach.

So how does the Ovi Store compare to Apple’s App Store, BlackBerry’s App World and Google’s Android Market? As in previous stories, we’ve compared Apple to Wal-Mart, BlackBerry to a high-end boutique and Google to a thrift market. In a way, the Ovi Store is like Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN), which offers an abundance of products but is pretty good at making recommendations based on the user. Linardos said: “I think that we are trying to serve the stuff that matters to you, and we are targeting you with content. That’s part of how you serve over 60 devices and operators in eight countries. If we made it a thrift shop, it would be too unwieldy, and on the other hand, we can’t program it one-to-one.”

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