(By Mayur Pahilajani - iStockAnalyst Writer)
New York, NY – The mobile phone sector on Monday gained the attention of investors and consumers with their different steps to boost sales of high-end handsets by opting different marketing strategies and launching new devices and services.
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), which is the world's largest maker of mobile phones, launched a series of new high-end handsets on Monday for business executives.
The company also unveiled its new online software and media store, hoping to follow the runaway success of the App Store by Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).
Nokia had already warned of aggressive pricing in the handset market as it losses its market share to smartphone making companies, like Apple’s iPhone and Blackberry Storm by Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM).
Nokia's Ovi Store was announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, Spain, today as the focus of the mobile phone makers shift towards software development.
Ovi is a virtual storefront that will allow the developers to upload applications and consumers to easily download them. The content providers will be able to get their work into the store via a single channel, Publish.Ovi.com, which will be open for content from February 16.
"Ovi Store is a much needed response to success of App Store from Apple," Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight, told Reuters today.
"Successful deployment is essential to maintaining the competitiveness of Symbian and the key partner is undoubtedly Facebook, given the current momentum around social networking on mobile phones," Wood added.
The company plans to open the online store in nine countries in May and around 70 percent of revenues from the store would go to software content providers.
Nokia is expected to ship its first model and new flagship phone N97 that will have access to the store, which will also have an online bazaar selling music and films. The applications can also be downloaded by Series 40 and Series 60 phones.
"In the current economic climate everyone is taking a closer look at the costs and benefits of technology," Nokia President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said Monday.
In January, Apple announced that its online store has over 15,000 applications for download.
