Almost a year after the Ovi Store first opened for business, Nokia said the mobile content marketplace is now averaging 1.7 million downloads per day. Speaking at the Nokia Annual General Meeting in Helsinki, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said there are now localized versions of the Ovi Store in 18 countries, supporting 30 different languages. In addition, the handset maker’s free turn-by-turn Ovi Maps service has now been downloaded more than 10 million times since going live in January, and is now available across more than 70 countries and in 45 languages.

According to Nokia, new additions include a mobile device selector for users who aren’t logged in, immediately identifying which apps and games are available for different phones–in addition, Ovi Store now boasts a five-star user rating system (up from three), making it easier to separate the most favorably reviewed applications. Reviews also indicate when the comments were posted and the reviewer’s device model. Also new: Cleaner search results, making it easier for consumers to pinpoint desired content.

Link: Kallasvuo Addresses Nokia AGM, Says 2010 a Key Year

Source: Press Release

You can now be a mobile application developer, thanks to Nokia’s new Ovi App Wizard beta. The new service doesn’t require a software development kit — known as an SDK in developer parlance — or other downloads. Instead, users just plug in the URL of their Twitter feed, Facebook account or RSS feed, upload a logo, answer a few questions and with an “I Dream of Jeannie” head-bob, become an app developer in under 24 hours. Based on the user-generated video below, the actual work effort required to create an application is around five minutes.

The Ovi App Wizard takes the user-submitted information and creates an app that can be “delivered on more than 100 Nokia device models in more than 180 countries around the world.” Software can be free, ad-supported or priced according to the user’s specifications.

Source: Gigaom

In its latest attempt to gain ground in the mobile internet wars, Nokia has acquired US browser firm Novarra.

It will acquire 100% of the privately-held Chicago-based firm, one of the first companies to develop a handset browser.Novarra’s mobile browser and services platform will be used by Nokia to deliver enhanced internet experiences on Nokia mobile devices.Novarra would be deployed on Nokia’s mid-range Series 40 platform, not its top-end Series 60 OS.

Novarra has a long history as a browser developer, supplying one of the first ever to the Palm PDA. Nokia said a new service using the Novarra platform would be available later this year.

Research firm Gartner predicts that 85% of handsets shipped by 2011 will contain some kind of web browser.

Source: Telecomasia

INTEL AND NOKIA have joined forces, combining the Moblin and Maemo to create Meego, a new Linux based, open source operating system and developer platform for mobile devices.

Source: The Inquirer

Mozilla is all set to release a new  version of firefox for Nokia’s mobile platform Maemo. It has released a first release candidate (RC1) which is currently available for Nokia’s N900 and N810. Mozilla looks to augment the overall internet surfing experience with the RC1. The release comes with plug-ins, the iconic Awesome Bar and a tabbed browsing.In the new release Mozilla has also enhanced text rendering, added new hooks for add-on developers, and has also polished the application. Besides, the company has addressed many N900 specific issues, including installing to /opt and the fixing the symbol picker.

Source: Media Mughals

According to Pluggd.in , Nokia is launching We Meet application that enables users to create chat groups and buy/sell products using sms.

We Meet is a location aware application (works with cellid) and the product works with S40 phones as well (SMS based app that works on low-cost devices).

The service is launched by Nokia’s Research Center and currently, Nokia doesn’t have any tie-ups with operators.

To use We Meet, all you have to do is download and install the Java client on your mobile phone, which can be run on any S40 or S60 phone and get started right away.You can create groups and start adding contacts to the relevant groups. If you are using the Java client,your location information will be broadcasted along with the SMSes.The software “threads” the messages in chronological order, making it easy to follow the conversation. The effect is something like an instant messaging conversation, but at the fraction of the cost and on devices with no data plans. “We want to bring Internet-type services to people and see how they adopt them.

Source :Pluggd Via Forbes

Nokia is planning to launch a new  application  ” Nokia Point & Find” in India by 2011. It is one of the “Mixed Reality” applications being developed at Tampere, Finland. Mixed Reality means the merger of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualisations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time.  In short it is about combining digital information with physical location. This will enable the development of the next generation devices and services and hence is one key focus areas for Nokia.

This application will enable a user to get all the relevant information about any product that he/she intends to buy in any location. For this the user has to point the smartphone camera towards the product and start clicking. within seconds every product detail — its price, the nearest retail outlet, its location and distance will be available to the user.

Nokia intends to use the various sensors in the handsets, like its microphone, camera, GPS, accelerometer, light sensors, etc, to bring more targeted and personalised services and information to the user.Some other projects under development includes an application which enables real time flow of traffic data collected from all handsets using GPS. This will provide a user the latest traffic data.

With such applications under development, Nokia plans to totally transform itself into a services company. Nokia is looking at services and internet from the perspective of a telecom player. If connecting people was all about making phone calls till now, going forward it will be all about providing all that a consumer needs.

Source: Economic Times

Nokia announced its app development competition for Arabic application calling it -Bil3arabi (which means “in Arabic”) contest, in a bid to draw developers to submit Arabic and other relevant apps to its Ovi Store, a smart move to bring pioneering local and relevant apps to the Arab world on Nokia devices, which would put Nokia in a leading position before its mobile competitors specially the iPhone. As the Mobile OS apps game of today is no different than the PC app OS game of the 80s, the Mobile OS that draws more developers would emerge as a winner.

Though Bil3arabi is a smart move by Nokia, it had a major shortfall: it was not open to individuals and students!! But now Nokia corrected its mistake with an announcement that it is now allowing additional submissions for its Arabic-language mobile applications competition, Calling All Innovators – Bil3arabi, by welcoming individuals as well as companies, and accepting direct submissions from those developers whose apps can not currently be uploaded to Ovi Store!!!

Nokia is also giving developers more time, by extending the deadline to 15 November 2009

Source : Arab Crunch

Today, Nokia unveiled a small tablet computer that offers computer-like functionality and connects to the internet over a cellular connection. Release.

The Nokia N900 runs on the Linux-based Maemo software that Nokia has been working on for several years, and marks the third operating system that the company has said it will support—just in the past week. It was only on Monday that Nokia announced the 10-inch “Booklet 3G,” a netbook running Microsoft Windows. The company also says it also remains committed to the Symbian OS for its smartphones, although analysts are starting to wonder if Maemo could eventually replace it.

In the N900 press release, Nokia has an analyst explain the difference between Maemo and Symbian. Jonathan Arber, IDC’s Senior Research Analyst, said: “Just as Nokia continues to expand and diversify its device portfolio, so it is deploying multiple platforms to allow it to serve different purposes and address different markets. While we have seen continued growth in Symbian as a smartphone platform, Maemo enables Nokia to deliver new mobile computing experiences based on open-source technology that has strong ties with desktop platforms.”

Nokia said the N900 will be available in some markets starting in October with an estimated retail price of EUR 500 ($712) excluding sales taxes and subsidies. The announcement today is just a preview of the device, which will be on display at Nokia World in Stuttgart, Germany Sept. 2.

More specs: The device comes with a browser, powered by Mozilla; full Adobe Flash 9.4 support; a full physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard; Nokia’s Messaging service, which allows up to 10 email accounts; 32GB of storage, which is expandable up to 48GB via a microSD card; and 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

Interview with Nokia designer Mark Delaney