Opera Software has signed an agreement with Microsoft to become the default mobile app store on the Nokia Symbian feature phones and Nokia X platform devices. From the first quarter of next year, the Nokia Store app will redirect to the Opera Mobile Store for the Nokia Series 40, Series 60, Symbian, Asha, and Nokia X.

With the agreement, Opera will be the third largest mobile app store in the world after Google Play and the App Store. Over 40,000 developers contribute to the Opera mobile store ecosystem, which has close to 300,000 apps and sees about 70 million downloads every month. Opera recently surpassed 50 millions users in India and has become the third most downloaded app in the country.

Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software, told Tech in Asia: “We are the third biggest independent mobile advertising company after Facebook and Google. With our strong user base, the mobile app developers can advertise their apps to a larger audience and also make the best of our billing integration which lets users buy apps even without a credit card.”

Nokia Symbian, Asha, and Nokia X device owners will get to use the web-based Opera mobile store to browse, discover, and download apps. However, users on the Nokia X platform, which is based on the Android Open Source Project, will have a slightly different experience. The tweak is needed in order to deliver a typical Android smartphone experience to these users.

The migration of the Nokia app store to Opera is expected to finish by the first half of 2015. The Nokia store will no longer be accessible following the move.

techinasia

As Microsoft continues sloughing off the Nokia brand name on phones, the Nokia Store for feature phones will cease to exist.

Having already dropped the Nokia branding for its latest smartphone -- the Microsoft Lumia 535 -- Microsoft is set to shut down the Nokia Store in the first half of 2015.

The Nokia Store enables owners of Nokia feature phones, such as the Asha series, and Symbian and Nokia X phones to download apps to their devices. Based on the last statistics released two years ago, the store was serving up to 15 million downloads daily.

Users will, however, still be able to get access to apps via a deal with Opera Software. Starting in the first quarter of 2015, users will be redirected to the Opera Mobile Store, which currently has close to 300,000 apps.

The migration of users to the Opera Mobile Store is expected to be complete in the first half of 2015, when the Nokia Store shuts down.

Both Microsoft and Opera are "looking into methods to help developers move their content over, and this will be communicated to developers ahead of the migration," Opera said in statement.

As for phone owners who have paid for apps from the Nokia Store, Opera said the "the company will work closely with developers to find out the best solution for consumers."

Opera added that consumers should not delete a previously purchased app once the transition takes place, or they will need to buy it again.

This isn't the first time that Opera and Microsoft have collaborated. In August, both companies struck a deal to use the Opera Mini browser as the default browser for Microsoft's feature and Asha handsets.

cnet

Finland's Nokia (NOK1V.HE) launched a new brand-licensed tablet computer on Tuesday which is designed to rival Apple's(AAPL.O) iPad Mini, just six months after the company sold its ailing phones and devices business to Microsoft (MSFT.O) for over $7 billion.

Nokia, a name which was once synonymous with mobile phones until first Apple and then Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) eclipsed the Finnish company with the advent of smart phones, said the manufacturing, distribution and sales of the new N1 tablet, will be handled under license by Taiwan's Foxconn (2354.TW).

The aluminum-cased N1, which runs on Google's (GOOGL.O) Android Lollipop operating software but features Nokia's new Z Launcher intelligent home screen interface, is due to be in stores in China in the first quarter of next year for an estimated price of $249 before taxes, with sales to other markets to follow.

Sebastian Nystrom, the head of products at Nokia's Technologies unit, said the company was looking to follow up with more devices and will also look into eventually returning to the smartphones business by brand-licensing.

"With the agreement with Microsoft, as is customary, we have this transition and we can't do smartphones ... We have a time limit. In 2016 we can again enter that business," Nystrom told Reuters.

"It would be crazy not to look at that opportunity. Of course we will look at it."

Microsoft last week dropped the Nokia name on its latest Lumia 535 smartphone, which runs on its Windows Phone 8 operating system, but still uses the brand for more basic phones.

After the Microsoft sale Nokia was left with its core network equipment and services business plus its smaller HERE mapping and navigation unit and Nokia Technologies, which manages the licensing of its portfolio of patents and develops new products such as the N1 and the Z Launcher.

Asked about rumors that Nokia was looking to re-enter the handset market, Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said last week he was looking into ways to bring the brand back into the consumer market through licensing deals.

REUTERS