Nokia expands ecosystem opportunites with new applications

Nokia has made it easier for web publishers and developers to create applications with integrated services and native-like user interfaces.

Announced at its annual Nokia World conference, the company said it will progressively roll out web and mobile APIs (application programming interface) for its services, beginning with the Ovi Maps Player API and the Ovi Navigation Player API for cutting-edge location solutions on its smartphones. The company also hosted a keynote from Henri Moissinac, director of Mobile, Facebook, highlighting the opportunities in mobile social networking and the close collaboration between the two companies.

"This is just the beginning. We will work in close cooperation with developers to evolve the offering, starting with social location solutions," said Niklas Savander, EVP, Services, Nokia.

"Our goal is clear, and that is to make it effortless for our partners to create highly appealing, context-relevant applications that consumers will find indispensable."

Nokia has already been working with key partners such as Lonely Planet, Deutsche Bahn, Associated Press, Qype, National Geographic, Deutsche Telekom Medien and Langenscheidt to create example applications using the Ovi SDK Beta and Ovi APIs.

Henri Moissinac, director of Mobile, Facebook, said, ''Since its release in June, the Facebook application for Nokia is available for download in more than 150 countries and is currently one of the most distributed applications in the Ovi Store. Needless to say, it's really exciting to be working so closely with the largest handset manufacturer in the world to bring our 250 million users worldwide an innovative Facebook experience on their mobile devices -- and this is just the beginning."