How Nokia’s App Store Will Stack Up Against The Competition

trending topics

Our news

Yes, it’s true: We are joining GigaOM...

How Nokia’s App Store Will Stack Up Against The Competition

Comments (View)
Text Size: A A
Email
Share

Nokia’s app store will debut this month with a catalog of 20,000 items, which is far greater than any other app store has launched with to date. However, for a number of reasons, big doesn’t necessarily mean better.

Forbes reports that when Nokia launches its store this month, it will have 20,000 items, ranging from applications to other media, such as short videos. That certainly blows away other mobile storefront launches, including Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and RIM (NSDQ: RIMM), which in comparison launched with a few hundred apps. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) opened up with even fewer. But that comparison is not exactly fair. Not every application in Nokia’s Ovi Store will work on every Nokia phone, meaning the selection for any one user may vary drastically depending on the popularity of their handset.

The problem of fragmentation is somewhat unique to Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Apple has only one iPhone to support and now has about 40,000 application. It is also somewhat true for Google’s Android operating system, which has yet to produce too many different models. A more similar comparison is Research In Motion’s BlackBerry App World, which supports a range of devices, from the touchscreen Storm to the Qwerty BlackBerry Curve. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) will also face a similar problem when it launches its Windows Mobile Marketplace later this year.

For instance, a quick look at the company’s web site shows it will support hundreds of individual phones using multiple operating systems. In addition, there’s at least eight different screen resolutions and specifications range from GPS, WCDMA and GSM to four versions of Flash Lite. For every user to have access to 20,000 apps, a developer would potentially have to build hundreds of different versions.

Still, while the number of applications may be deceiving, Nokia’s store will surely reach more people from the start than any other app store to date, as well. Initially, it will come pre-loaded on the company’s new flagship handset, the N97, and then it will come pre-loaded on phones in the future. It will also be available for download by consumers, and will be pushed out to phones that already have a store as an update. From day one, Nokia has previously said it could reach 50 million users—that easily beats Apple’s base of 37 million iPhone and iPod Touch users. However, once again, not all those users will be able to buy each and every one of those apps.

Related Stories

By Tricia Duryee