Nokia Corp. announced its intentions to launch a new service called the Ovi Store, which will be similar to Apple’s App Store, as it will provide users with applications, ring tones and other content for their mobile devices.

Looking to bring a little extra to the offer, in order to distance itself from Apple and also from Google’s App Store, Nokia will add other features, such as downloadable background images and videos.

George Linardos, vice president of marketing for Nokia's media division, explained that the store is scheduled for launch in May and should be accessible by more than 50 million Nokia phones through a simple software upgrade. The upgrade will be available for the existing mid- to high-end handsets and the first device which will be released with the software already installed is the company’s N97 mobile phone, planned to come out in June.

"It's a service that feeds you a constantly refreshing feed of content, personalized to you," Mr. Linardos described it, adding that "You're not just browsing for things to buy, but you're being fed content you want. No two people in theory are ever really seeing the same content."

Some expected that the new service will be combined with a music offer, but Mr. Linardos explained that the Nokia Music Store will continue as a separate project.

The app store trend was started by Apple, and after seeing the customers’ enthusiasm and the massive revenue gained by the company, other handset of software manufacturers announced their intentions to release similar services.