The rate of downloads [...]]]> Nokia’s defensive move to make its Ovi maps and navigation free is already seeing strong customer response. Since launching Jan. 21, Nokia (NYSE: NOK – News) said today that people have downloaded the service 1.4 million times, and the one million mark was hit in just a week.

The rate of downloads are staggering, and will presumably surpass Google’s Android user base since Nokia’s reach is much larger. “We’re averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s EVP. “When we announced free walk & drive navigation we knew it would be a game-changer. The number of people now using their Nokia for navigation, and as a result looking for more location-aware software, is growing faster than even we predicted.” There’s no doubt that the program is also helping to get the word out about its Ovi Store, which is now averaging one million downloads a day.

Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG – News) started providing free navigation services on the Motorola (NYSE: MOT – News) Droid, and has rolled it out to many more devices since. That prompted Nokia to stop charging for its mapping services. It’s still not clear how Nokia will make money from giving away the software for free. Nokia got into the maps business after it spent millions on acquiring Navteq. Nokia said its strategy is to “lead the market in mobile maps, navigation and location-based services.” Vanjoki: “This is great news for our 3rd party application developers.  Within a matter of days there is an installed base of more than 1 million active users all potentially hungry for new and innovative location-aware apps. For the operators too there is a growing opportunity to sell more data-plans and a complete navigation package to existing and new customers.”

Nokia provided a list of the top five countries where maps are being downloaded the most. They are very representative of the company’s global reach: China, Italy, UK, Germany and Spain. The service covers more than 180 countries and is available in 46 languages. For now, current users will have to download the app to their devices. At least 12 devices are supported. Going forward, all new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with high-end walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides at no extra cost.

Previously, Greystripe was supporting both the iPhone App Store and the Android Marketplace, but expanding to Nokia [...]]]> San Francisco-based Greystripe has added Nokia’s Ovi store to the list of mobile platforms that can tap into its mobile ad network. Likewise, Greystripe said it is adapting 1,200 game titles from its Gamejump.com entity for the Ovi store.

Previously, Greystripe was supporting both the iPhone App Store and the Android Marketplace, but expanding to Nokia (NYSE: NOK – News) makes sense. Nokia has the largest smartphone marketshare globally, and while many consider its application storefront to be trailing, just last week, the company said Ovi downloads have hit one million a day. Greystripe does not support RIM’s BlackBerry platform, which is considered the second-largest smartphone platform worldwide.

Originally, Greystripe focused on creating free, ad-supported Java-based games, which it distributed through sites, including its own Gamejump.com. But more recently, Greystripe has branched out to support iPhone and Android applications. Despite its emphasis on smartphone platforms, it said that its Java-based games are still downloaded on its network about 250,000 times a day. Those games will work fairly easily on Nokia’s Symbian operating system, and will likely see more downloads because of the increased reach.

Developers that are distributing their apps on Ovi will have the choice of both pre-and post-roll full-screen ads. While advertisers like the Navy and JCPenny were named in the press release as two brands that are looking for the broad reach that Nokia has, those seem like unlikely choices given that most of Nokia’s dominance is outside the U.S. or in emerging markets.

For the third year running, the most popular phone was still the old classic, [...]]]> Finland is sometimes called NokiaLand because the company Nokia comes from Finland and due to the fact that many people in Finland have a Nokia phone. A recent study shows that Nokia´s market share in Finland is 86%.

For the third year running, the most popular phone was still the old classic, the Nokia 3310 with a 5% market share. In fact, the 56 most popular phones were all made by Nokia. At the high end of the range, the most popular phone was the Nokia N70. Nokia held an overwhelming 99% share of the smartphone market in Finland.

From the other manufacturers, Korean phone manufacturer Samsung held about 4% the market, Sony Ericsson 3%, Benq-Siemens 3%, and Motorola less than 0.5%. Other manufacturers made up 1% of the market and 3% of the phones in the study were not identified.

Nokia’s market share has hardly changed in the past three years. Samsung and Sony Ericsson have slightly increased their market share, while Motorola and Siemens have lost out, researcher Antero Kivi told the Finnish news agency STT.The study was conducted in autumn 2007 and was based on information on four million mobile phones from telecom operators Sonera, Elisa (including Kolumbus) and DNA.

Mobile trends in Finland

The findings also showed that Finns change their mobile phones every 2.7 years. There were about 1,000 different phones being used in Finland. According to Kivi, the other manufacturers don?t have a model comparable to the Nokia 3310.

More than 70% of the phones in use had a colour screen and half included a camera. Manufacturers have great expectations regarding the gps feature on the latest models but the study showed that so far this has failed to take off. Only 2% of Finns used phones with gps last autumn and there were still only a few gps models available in the shops.

The third generation 3G phones gained an 18% share of the market, which was more than double the figure in 2006. The market share of the Symbian operating system also increased significantly from 12% in 2006 to 18% in 2007.

The Apple proclaimed that Nokia copies iPhone and its interface in meticulous. The company does not intend to put up with allegations Nokia in patent intrusion and launched castigatory action.

Apple has launched a counterclaim against Nokia, accusing the Finnish manufacturer of mobile phones in violation of 13 patents, reports [...]]]>

The Apple proclaimed that Nokia copies iPhone and its interface in meticulous. The company does not intend to put up with allegations Nokia in patent intrusion and launched castigatory action.

Apple has launched a counterclaim against Nokia, accusing the Finnish manufacturer of mobile phones in violation of 13 patents, reports Associated Press.

Recall that in October, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple, reproachful it of illicitly using technology related standards, GSM, UMTS, WLAN, modes of transmission, speech coding, security and encryption for mobile handsets. Total Nokia measured desecrated 10 of its patents.

Documents counterclaim Apple mentioned technology among the mobile gadget with a private computer, data transfer, conferencing, energy and others. Additionally, two patents, which, according toApple , broken Nokia, related to the interface iPhone – colors and textures of elements, and ways of scrolling, zooming and rotating images on the screen.

“In the fight with Nokia is trying to make us pay for freely licensed technology, but she uses other people’s creations, – said Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell. – Nokia has opted to copy the iPhone, especially its extremely popular patented design and user interface. The argument Sewell quoted the executive vice president of Nokia, Anssi Vanjoki, uttered in 2007: “If the world will see something interesting, we are proud to make a copy.