Nokia announced its “Ovi Store operator app store concept” in partnership with Orange France and Deutsche Telekom, which it said provides operators with “a familiar branded channel on Ovi Store, and global opportunities to differentiate and build revenues with their own content collections and consumer-convenient operator billing.” Intended to deliver operators worldwide “new ways to differentiate and compete,” the programme enables these partners to create their own apps and services with tools such as connectors, Ovi App Wizard, and a set of APIs – including cloud social and location interfaces. Operators can also use marketing, promotional and content spotlight opportunities inside Ovi Store to promote specific apps and content, along with easy one-click access to the operator app store from the Ovi Store’s mobile home page.

In a statement, Nokia said that “with daily downloads topping 5 million per day, Ovi Store is a rapidly growing destination for apps, games and other content.” It also offers operator billing support with 112 operators in 37 markets. The company’s plans for Ovi Store moving forward are not totally clear, as the company said that it intends launching a “Nokia-branded global application store that leverages the Windows Marketplace infrastructure,” as part of its wide-ranging partnership with Microsoft.

Rainer Deutschmann, SVP of Mobile Products for Deutsche Telekom, noted: “customers are increasingly overwhelmed by the rapidly growing number of apps. Deutsche Telekom’s shelf within Nokia’s Ovi store represents an integral part in our approach to give customers easy access to relevant own and partner apps – including freemium and exclusive offers.”