Despite the rabid popularity of Apple’s iPhone App Store around the world, Nokia’s Ovi Store has overtaken Apple in emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, according to a recent Evans Data Corp. study.
“The app store model is now an expected part of any wireless developer program,” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data, in a statement. “And while Apple’s iPhone App Store set the pace in North America and Europe, Nokia has been busy cultivating developers outside the U.S. in their traditional offshore strongholds, and has been remarkably successful in the short time of the Ovi store’s existence.”
The Evans Data study results jibe with market trends that show Nokia and the Symbian OS as being a leading mobile platform in emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The study also indicated that Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace for Mobile and apps sold directly through a carrier were also popular channels.
However, monetization of their applications is not the top priority for wireless developers in selecting a platform, according to the Evans Data Wireless Development Survey. Instead, developers said technical issues such as operating system, application runtime, and development tools were more important factors than monetization. Evans Data conducted its survey of more than 400 wireless developers in December 2009.
Meanwhile, other highlights of the survey include that wireless developers surveyed said more than 60 percent of wireless development projects are completed within six months or less. Also, the survey showed that Java Data Objects are the most likely way to connect back-end applications to wireless apps, and Intel’s processors are targeted by more wireless developers than any other vendor including ARM and nVidia.