Nokia Store to be 'replaced' by Opera Mobile Store

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The Nokia Store, as far as Symbian users are concerned, hasn't been much use for a while, with content frozen as of the start of this year, and with the very store itself starting to become available for some users in some markets. Although it's not exactly a direct replacement, and competing with ventures like AppList of course, Opera Mobile has stepped up to the plate in an initiative designed to pick up some more of the slack.

Exactly how it all pans out has yet to be seen, but certainly there are moves afoot to morph the Nokia Store domain over to Opera's control. 

Firstly the press release from Microsoft, which must be glad to be seeing the back of Symbian (and the other platforms listed), reading between the lines:

As we focus our efforts on helping the Windows Phone developer community grow and succeed, we recognize that people from all corners of the world still love their classic Nokia phones. And, for those of you who develop great apps, games and other content for these phones, there’s good news in store for you.

Starting in early 2015, Opera Software will extend the Opera Mobile Store to work with even more Nokia phones, including those that run Series 40, Series 60, Symbian, Asha and Nokia X software, ensuring people can continue to enjoy a variety of great apps.

Opera Mobile Store is one of the top app stores in the world and has recently reached 200 million average monthly visitors. With users hailing from 196 regions across the globe, Opera Mobile Store offers many of the same features as Nokia Store, including free and paid-for global and local apps for Nokia phones.

We expect Nokia Store to close in the first half of 2015 when the redirection to Opera Mobile Store is complete. And, while we’ll miss all your great apps on Nokia Store, we couldn’t be more excited about the future of those apps on Opera Mobile Store.

'Couldn't be more excited', eh?(!) Anyway, moving on, there's a fuller press release from Opera itself:

Opera Mobile Store will replace Nokia Store as the default app store for Nokia feature phones, Symbian and Nokia X smartphones, following an agreement between Opera Software and Microsoft.

Beginning in the first quarter of 2015, people who access Nokia Store from Series 40, Series 60, Symbian, Asha and Nokia X devices will be automatically redirected to Opera Mobile Store, where they will be offered the opportunity to become customers of Opera Mobile Store and have access to tens of thousands of apps for their Nokia phones.

The transition to Opera Mobile Store will enable millions of people who use classic Nokia phones to continue to have a trusted source for apps, games and content. The process of migrating customers from Nokia Store to Opera Mobile Store is expected to be complete in the first half of 2015, at which point Nokia Store will be closed.

....When the transition of customers from the Nokia Store to the Opera Mobile Store is complete, Opera is positioned to become the third largest app store in terms of downloads.

With close to 300,000 apps and games available in the store today, and millions of downloads each day, the Opera Mobile Store has a wide reach for developers looking to distribute apps.

Opera Mobile Store today supports more than 7,500 different devices, from feature phones to the most advanced smartphones. It is a trusted platform used by more than 40,000 developers around the world.

Developers looking to publish apps on the Opera Mobile Store can do so by visiting apps.opera.com.

Of course, the existence of a new store doesn't help all those who purchased content from the Nokia Store and will soon not be able to re-download it (if the Store is working for you now, make sure you've downloaded/installed as much as possible!)

Obviously, this will have a much wider target audience than geek initiatives like AppList, but the downside will be a lot of content which is, shall we say, trivial, no doubt. Watch this space for something of a guide to the Symbian applications which still work well and are easily available for the end of 2014...

Source / Credit: Opera