Times have been better for Nokia (NYSE:NOK). Shares in the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, while up from lows around $4 in August, currently are trading around $6 — the last time the stock traded around $6 for an extended period was 1998, before the mobile phone market was more than a fast-growing business service niche.
Still, more Nokia phones are in consumer hands around the world than any other brand, but Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) left the company in the dust in terms of earnings from mobile phones back in January. Even with its anticipated partnership with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) likely bearing fruit in the form of new high-end smartphones targeting the U.S. mobile market in the next six months, it’s questionable whether the company can escape the gravity from the black hole that is the dying feature phone market.
But, where there’s a hope, there’s a way — and there’s at least one glimmer of promise in Nokia’s current mobile business. The Ovi Store — the equivalent of Apple’s App Store running on Symbian operating system Nokia phones — actually is a thriving environment for app developers. This is according to a new study conducted by German firm research2guidance (reprinted at BGR) that found that during the second quarter of this year, the average app in Nokia’s Ovi Store saw 160% more downloads per day than the average app in Apple’s App Store. Put another way: A business that sells its app in the Ovi Store will see its wares downloaded more times, more often than they will through Apple’s outlet.
Now it’s important to note some disparities in scale. For starters, there are just more than 50,000 apps available in the Ovi Store at this point in time compared to the 500,000-plus available through Apple’s store. The Ovi Store also earns significantly less than the App Store. Across 2010, the Ovi Store generated $105 million in revenue, according to IHS. Apple’s iTunes operating segment, which includes the App Store, generated $1.4 billion in the second quarter of 2011 alone. Even if developers are seeing their wares distributed to more people through the Ovi Store, they’re certainly not making as much money.
Still, this statistic might prove vital for Nokia during the next 12 months. As of the second quarter of 2011, Apple became the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer in the world in terms of the number of phones shipped to retailers, with 19% of the market; Nokia controls just less than 16% of the market, beating out Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) and others. Research2guidance’s data shows that even with a smaller chunk of the market and a smaller wealth of apps, Nokia’s remaining audience is hungry for digital content, and that audience hopefully will remain with the company when it introduces its line of Windows phones to the market.
Nokia plans to retire the Ovi brand once its Windows phones hit the market, its app store changing its name to just “Nokia.” Both Microsoft and Nokia need a broad stable of app developers from around the world, in every market, to capture consumer mind share and make any kind of headway against Apple or Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android phones. That Nokia can prove its audience is made up of active downloaders is a good start. It’s a hope, if nothing else.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.
