Nokia to launch co-branded app store

Nokia is to develop a co-branded app store initiative with both France Telecom¹s Orange and Deutsche Telekom, joint stakeholders in Everything Everywhere.

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The ’store-in-a-store’ concept lets operators promote their apps within Nokia¹s Ovi App Store via a dedicated operator-branded channel which will have prominent placement within the portal.

The operators can then charge users for these downloads via their mobile bill.

A Nokia spokesman says that there are no definite plans to roll out similar services with operators in the UK but explained that it is still possible.

Marco Argenti, Nokia¹s senior VP, developer & marketplace, said, “In addition to the store-in-store advantages, operators can leverage Nokia’s local support to create relevant offerings and easily publish apps through the Ovi Store.”

Rainer Deutschmann, Deutsche Telekom senior VP for mobile products, said,”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”.

Nokia claims that its Ovi Store is generating 5m downloads per day. However, its future has been called into question after Nokia announced plans to launch Nokia-branded app store selling Windows Phone apps as part of its alliance with Microsoft.

This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk. For more digital stories and analysis’ from NMA click here now