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Nokia will try to break the stranglehold Apple and Google have on the mobile application (apps) market this year, according to senior Irish managers.
Nokia offers just a fraction of the apps available to rivals iPhone and the Linux-based operating system Android, which drives, among others, Google’s new Nexus One.
So the Finnish manufacturer faces an uphill struggle and its bid for mainstream acceptance is also complicated by its large range of phone models with different technical capabilities.
‘‘We’re under no illusions that, in many ways, we’re playing a catch-up game,” said Eoin Cruise, product manager for Nokia Ireland.
‘‘The first version of Ovi had a few things that didn’t work out. But I do think that we’ve got this right now. We’re seeing a million Ovi downloads a day and it’s growing rapidly. With the installed user-base we have, there’s no reason why Ovi can’t become a major force in mobile apps this year.”
Despite being available on about a million Irish handsets, Ovi is struggling against the industry leaders, Apple and Android.
The iPhone has more than 100,000 applications available online, while Android has over 20,000. By comparison, Nokia’s Ovi has just 7,000. However, according to Nokia managers, the company is adding ‘‘up to 500 apps or different content items’’ every week.
‘‘We commissioned a version of Amhrán na bhFiann some months back and it got 25,000 downloads, which is huge,” said Sian Gray, Nokia’s marketing manager.
‘‘Part of the challenge we have in Ireland is that there is limited Irish content to push out to people. This is one of the reasons we’re engaging so heavily with Irish developers now. We want the message to go out that we’re willing to help them in any way we can.”
Despite the success of touchscreen smartphones and relative newcomers such as Samsung, Nokia continues to dominate the Irish handset market. Last year, it had 73 models on sale here. Of these, 40 can download and use Ovi applications. But with so many different phones, how can Ovi work seamlessly? And how can local developers make apps that work effectively?
‘‘As a developer, you don ’t have to create 40 different apps for the same program,” said Shane O’Brien, head of software services for Nokia Ireland.
‘‘If you contact us and work with us, we can point you to the best devices for your app.”
To support its apps bid, Nokia is to refocus its marketing and advertising campaigns to emphasise the availability of Ovi apps.
‘‘As a company, handsets are our bread and butter,” said Eoin Cruise. ‘‘But services are our future. Without a proper online mobile offering, we’re dead in the water.”
Last week, Nokia held a seminar for mobile developers in Dublin, with more than 100 developers attending.
‘‘One of the main hurdles Irish mobile developers have is that we look for a registered company name and Vat number,” said Cruise. ‘‘We need this for billing purposes. But a lot of Irish mobile application developers are bedroom developers. So we’re talking to brokers to try and fix this somehow. We will have a solution to it soon.”