Ovi store hits five million daily donwloads

Nokia's Ovi store has reached five million downloads per day, multiplying its size by a factor of eight over the last year, the Finish company has announced.

The store's catalogue has increased by more than 40,000 apps, most of which are based on the manufacturer's recent Symbian devices, such as the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 and Nokia E7.

Tero Ojanpera, executive vice president of services and developer experience at the firm, was satisfied by the growth in his company's app store.

"This momentum continues to demonstrate consumers' appetite for Nokia's global and locally relevant apps, and will help us plan the future apps store experience for improved and new Symbian devices, as well as Nokia smartphones based on the planned collaborative opportunities with Microsoft," he said.

Ojanpera also claimed it was a great opportunity for developers to reach consumers worldwide, given the rapid growth of the Ovi store and the up to 150 million Symbian devices Nokia plans to ship in the coming years.

The growth was made public after Nokia announced an update for Symbian entitled Symbian Anna was on its way. It also confirmed two new Symbian-based handsets, despite the operating system being pushed out by Windows Phone 7.

The company has also appointed Conor Pierce as its new UK managing director.