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Nokia Tops RIM in Daily App Downloads
Today Nokia has released its Ovi Store download numbers and they're starting to look good. In fact, it appears that Nokia users are now downloading more applications than Blackberry users.
According a press release put out this morning, Nokia says it now reaches 140 million customers worldwide and is seeing more than 200,000 people per day signing up for Ovi, the marketplace which features applications, music, video and other downloads. Also, the Ovi Store, available in 190 countries, has now reached a milestone of 2.3 million downloads per day.
Nokia Talks Numbers
Nokia notes that 70 publishers have reached the "million download mark" for their apps. That list includes big names like Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Indiagames, PepsiCo, Qik, Shazam, HeroCraft and Offscreen Technologies.
The release also mentions the release of popular titles like Angry Birds and the new Nokia Foursquare application and notes the many changes the company has made to make application development easier.
As announced at the recent Nokia World event, these changes include things like free Java and Symbian signing, in-app purchase and in-app advertising programs (in beta), an improved revenue share and advanced developer analytics. (For more details on these initiatives, see: "Nokia Reaches Out to Developers, Now Crucial to Company's Success.")
Nokia Vs. RIM
These numbers Nokia revealed are interesting, but only when put into context. According to the Mobile Business Briefing, a newsletter publisher and daily mobile news service, what the numbers show is that Nokia is now beating RIM on application downloads.
Here's how that conclusion is reached:
- RIM recently reported App World numbers of 1.5 million downloads daily.
- In September, Nokia said there were 2 million Ovi Store downloads daily, 70% of which it said were apps. (The Ovi Store offers non-app purchases, too). That equates to 1.4 million app downloads.
- Today, Nokia says there are 2.3 million downloads from the Ovi Store. Assuming 70% are apps, that means there are now 1.61 million apps being downloaded.
- So, Nokia users are downloading 1.61 million apps and RIM users are downloading 1.5 million apps per day.
This race is neck-and-neck, it seems. And as Nokia's new flagship device, the N8, begins to ship, Nokia's Ovi numbers will likely go up once again.
Other Numbers
The release included some other numbers which may be of interest, too:
- Ovi Maps 'walk and drive navigation' is now available in 78 countries and 46 languages, including public transit details in more than 80 cities
- Ovi Music available in 38 markets with approximately 11 million tracks
- Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat have surpassed 17 million accounts, with Nokia Messaging delivering push email and IM to an active user base of 4 million people
- Ovi Life Tools has more than 4.7 million subscribers in China, India and Indonesia
Sources: Nokia press release, Mobile Business Briefing, Reuters, The Street, Mobile88
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