Nokia's Ovi Maps surpasses 3 million downloads

BARCELONA, Spain--Nokia trumpeted the continuing success of its fledgling Ovi Maps navigation app during its press event here at the 2010 Mobile World Congress, announcing that more than 3 million consumers have downloaded the application since it debuted in late January. According to Niklas Savander, the handset giant's executive vice president of services, Ovi Maps--a free service offering drive and walk navigation in 74 countries and 46 languages--now averages more than one download per second, 24 hours a day, translating to around 100,000 downloads on a daily basis. "People really dig it," Savander said. He added that Ovi Maps maximizes the Navteq assets Nokia acquired for $8.1 billion in 2007, noting that the mapping business brings with it high fixed costs and low variable costs. "And I haven't even mentioned the potential of advertising for us and our partners," Savander said, a broad hint that Nokia is poised to launch a location-based mobile advertising effort in the not-too-distant future.

Savander also spotlighted the growth of Nokia's all-you-can-eat Comes With Music service, which last week expanded into the Middle East region. While Comes With Music was available on about 30 percent of Nokia devices worldwide at the end of 2009, Savander said that number will increase to roughly 70 percent by the end of 2010. He added that the average Comes With Music subscriber downloads 500 free songs in the first few weeks after joining the service.

As for Nokia's Ovi Store effort, Savander reported the content marketplace 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 top lead in overall downloads. Ovi Store is now fully localized in 18 countries, with 60 operators offering integrated billing. Savander deflected an audience question concerning the number of total applications and content items in the Ovi Store, contending that what is more relevant is the number of available applications specific to each device, operator network and language.

Finally, Savander updated the progress of Nokia Money, its mobile financial service promising users in emerging markets access to basic transactions including person-to-person transfers, merchant and utility service payments and prepaid SIM card top-ups. Savander said Nokia will partner with Yes Bank to introduce a commercial pilot program targeting Pune, India, the country's eighth largest city--during the initial phase, consumers can transfer money to other users, pay utility bills and recharge their prepaid SIM cards. A second phase will allow for consumers to pay merchants for goods and services.   

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