Nokia announces 1.5 million Ovi downloads a day, launches Skype

Nokia has revealed that its oft maligned Ovi app store is now enjoying 1.5 million downloads each day. Obviously that’s not all games, but it’s an impressive figure nonetheless.

The announcement came as Nokia released a Skype app onto their download service. “We’re seeing around 1.5 million downloads a day through Ovi Store now” said Nokia’s SVP for smartphones, Jo Harlow, “and believe that the Skype client for Nokia smartphones increases the amount of downloads further.”

The attach rate of Ovi apps to devices is rather less impressive, however, with the average Ovi user having downloaded 12 apps since the service’s launch in May last year. That compares to your average iPhone or Android user downloading nine apps per month.

Still, Ovi is now up and running on more than 100 Nokia handsets - the majority of which are Symbian smartphones. This suggests that Nokia’s app store is in the hands of a lot of what could be termed ‘casual users,’ so a lower download rate is to be expected.

Encouragingly for Nokia, new user registrations doubled in February compared to January. The most encouraging statistic, however, is the top ten list of countries in terms of Ovi Store downloads: France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UK, and Vietnam.

This unusual mix of wealthy and developing markets suggests that Nokia continues to penetrate those areas that are as yet relatively untouched by the likes of Apple.