Proving it hasn’t given up the ghost on Symbian, despite its multi-billion dollar deal with Microsoft, Nokia today unveiled its brand new E6 and X7 smartphones and revealed there are 5m downloads a day from the Ovi store.
The new smartphones boast new icons and usability enhancements, such as improved text input, a faster browser and refreshed Ovi Maps.
“We are further strengthening Nokia’s smartphone portfolio with these two new devices, both of which offer a more beautiful and intuitive user experience that will soon also be available for the Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6-01,” said Jo Harlow, head of Nokia’s Smart Devices business.
“With these new products and more Symbian devices and user enhancements coming in the near future, we are confident we can keep existing Nokia smartphone customers engaged, as well as attract new first-time and competitor smartphone users,” Harlow said.
The Nokia E6 is a sleek business smartphone with a full QWERTY keypad and a high-resolution touch display. Nokia said the E6 offers exceptional battery life and the best out-of-the-box Microsoft messaging experience on a business smartphone, including access to Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Communicator Mobile and Microsoft SharePoint.
The Nokia X7 is an entertainment-focused smartphone with a large, 4-inch display ideal for gaming, and an 8-megapixel camera for capturing pictures and HD-quality video. The Nokia X7 is made from a combination of seamless stainless steel and glass, delivering a solid and durable feel in the hand. The Nokia X7 comes preloaded with the popular Galaxy on Fire HD and Asphalt 5 HD games.
The Nokia E6 and Nokia X7 are also the first smartphones to contain the complete update of the Symbian software user experience. This update offers a host of usability enhancements, including fresh, new icons, improved text input, a faster internet browsing experience and a refreshed Ovi Maps application with improved search and new public transport routes.
The renewed software also offers a strong set of new features aimed at business users in particular, including true enterprise-grade security with hardware accelerated encryption, and new email features, such as full meeting request support.
In coming months, the software update, which is nicknamed Symbian Anna, will also be available as standard on newly shipping Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6-01 devices, as well as available to download on previously purchased models of those same smartphones.
Ovi Store grows eight-fold
Nokia also revealed its Ovi Store has grown by nearly eight times over the last year and now reaches up to 5m downloads per day, propelled by the latest Symbian devices – the Nokia N8, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7 and Nokia E7 – which account for about 15pc of the daily downloads.
Increased demand for apps from the approximate 200m-strong Symbian consumer base has seen the Ovi Store catalogue grow to more than 40,000 apps, with about 1,000 added per week. This momentum has resulted in 158 developers from 41 countries now surpassing the million-download milestone each for their apps.
Nokia said its new monetisation opportunities for developers are tailored for local markets and include integrated operator billing with 112 operators in 36 markets, more than 25 times more operator billing integrations than Nokia’s nearest competitor.
Ovi Store has seen integrated operator billing increase consumer transactions by up to four times and this, coupled with Nokia’s beta programs for in-app billing and in-app advertising, means more revenue opportunities for developers on Symbian.
These opportunities are also being extended to Nokia Series 40 devices, which will enable apps for the next billion mobile phone consumers. The refreshed Ovi Store experience, previously available only for the new Symbian devices, has resulted in more than 35pc growth in downloads for Series 40 devices in the last two months, making up about a quarter of the total downloads.
