MOBIPRESS

With the number of active Nokia service users now reaching 140 million worldwide, the company today announced that more than 200,000 people are currently signing up daily to Ovi, and that Ovi Store has reached the milestone of 2.3 million downloads per day. Available in more than 190 countries, Ovi is discovered through Maps, Music, Messaging, Store and in select countries, Life Tools.

The growing popularity of the Ovi experience has also led to 70 developers and publishers each surpassing the million download mark for their content in the Ovi Store. Developers and publishers reaching and moving past this milestone include Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Indiagames, PepsiCo, Qik, Shazam, HeroCraft and Offscreen Technologies. HeroCraft, a publisher of content that includes the game Farm Frenzy, has received more than 10 million downloads, and Offscreen, a developer of a variety of touchscreen apps, has more than 45 million.

"At Nokia, we believe that connecting people with great mobile experiences is at the heart of what Ovi is all about," said Tero Ojanperä, executive vice president, Services, Nokia. "Today people discover Ovi through Maps, Music, Messaging, Store and Life Tools. With a new generation of amazing devices, like the Nokia N8, developers are looking at Ovi as a good business decision and a chance to innovate and create next-generation mobile experiences for our family of new Symbian smartphones."

Other milestones include:

- An updated Ovi Store experience - debuting on the newly available Nokia N8 and coming to the full range of new Symbian smartphones - giving a friendlier look and feel, faster content discovery and more popular content choices such as foursquare and the smash hit game Angry Birds.

- Improvements for developers including new development tools and benefits such as free Java and Symbian signing, in-app purchase and beta in-app advertising programs, improved revenue share and advanced developer analytics.

- Significant enhancements to the Nokia Qt Software Development Kit (SDK) have resulted in a 70 percent reduction in the number of lines of code required when developing for the company's family of Symbian smartphones.

- Continued expansion of Ovi Maps around the world and the integration of more new features. Walk and drive navigation is available in 78 countries and 46 languages and includes public transit details in more than 80 cities, and features such as check-in that supports location as the new social connector. Every day, maps usage is the equivalent of driving around the world 80 times.

- Available in 38 markets around the world and with approximately 11 million tracks in the global catalogue, Ovi Music is complemented by the popular interconnected Gig Finder app that uses personal music preferences to find relevant entertainment venues.