Nokia’s Ovi Store is now clocking up 5m downloads per day, representing almost 8x growth over the past year, according to the Finnish handset maker. Nokia says the numbers are being propelled by the latest Symbian devices – the Nokia N8, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7 and Nokia E7 – which account for around 15 per cent of 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 around 1,000 new apps added each week. This momentum has resulted in 158 developers from 41 countries now surpassing the 1m download milestone each for their apps, Nokia says.

Nokia’s new monetisation opportunities for developers are tailored for local markets, and include integrated operator billing with 112 operators in 36 markets, which Nokia notes is more than 25 times more operator billing integrations than its 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, the company points out.

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 35 per cent growth in downloads for Series 40 devices in the last two months, making up around a quarter of the total downloads.

Nokia adds that developers and publishers, large and small, are using Ovi Store’s global reach and rapid growth to cultivate new communities. These communities are driven by deeper user connections within their apps, further driving downloads and potential monetisation opportunities for developers.

Examples include Singapore developer Breakdesign, which created its Barking Seed site as an independent mobile gaming community built for players using Nokia Symbian and Series 40 devices. The site tracks top scores, lets gamers compete with other top players around the world and host contests to win Nokia devices and accessories. In just over a year, Breakdesign has notched up more than 6.5m downloads and more than 70,000 members in more than 170 countries. Its top Flash games found on Barking Seed are That Roach Game South Africa, Ninjani – Emperors Revenge, and Dawn of the Fly Chapter 1 and 2.

Moodagent, created by Danish firm Syntonetic, is an intelligent music mobile app that uses cloud-based technology to automatically select music and create playlists based on a user’s mood. It also allows them to share their mood and music with their network on Facebook and Twitter. To date, the number of Nokia Moodagent users has reached more than 4m from Ovi Store, and the total number of Nokia user tracks in the Moodagent cloud is more than 4bn. Both of these numbers are expected to grow even more, says Nokia, with its recent availability for Series 40 devices and the soon to be released Moodagent 3.0, with all the same great features of the original app plus music recommendation.

“As consumers continue to download Ovi Store content with increasing frequency, developers have an immediate opportunity to reach consumers worldwide and capitalise on the approximately 150m Symbian devices we plan to ship in the coming years,” says Tero Ojanpera, Nokia’s executive vice president of Services and Developer Experience. “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.”