Nokia slaps a fresh coat of paint on Ovi Store

Nokia announced a makeover to its Ovi Store mobile content storefront, promising consumers more efficient access from their desktop or handset. According to Nokia, new additions include a mobile device selector for users who aren't logged in, immediately identifying which apps and games are available for different phones--in addition, Ovi Store now boasts a five-star user rating system (up from three), making it easier to separate the most favorably reviewed applications. Reviews also indicate when the comments were posted and the reviewer's device model. Also new: Cleaner search results, making it easier for consumers to pinpoint desired content.

Nokia first indicated plans to revamp the Ovi Store late last year, stating that its initial iteration was always designed as a stopgap to bring together the handset giant's assorted portal efforts like Download and MOSH. Speaking at a roundtable event in London in December, Nokia's vice president of media products George Linardos said Ovi Store would be rebuilt from the ground up--a handful of legacy components will be retained, but phased out over the course of subsequent updates. "So it'll probably be about 75 percent from scratch, and three or four months after that it will be 100 percent," Linardos added.

During the 2010 Mobile World Congress event in February, Nokia executive vice president of services Niklas Savander reported that Ovi Store now averages more than a million downloads per day and is closing in on an average of 15 downloads per second, with the number of consumers shopping the storefront doubling every month. Games, utility applications, entertainment and productivity tools lead in overall downloads.

For more on the Ovi Store revamp:
- read this Nokia Conversations blog entry