The iPhone effect in Israel has been resounding in recent weeks. Almost daily, companies are announcing new applications for Apple Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AAPL) telephone, to which applications can be downloaded from the Appstore. Mobile phone maker Nokia Corporation (NYSE; LSE; HEX: NOK), which has its own applications store, OVI Store, wants to win the same kind of popularity, and therefore held its first Nokia Developer Day in Tel Aviv yesterday.
Eurocom Cellular Communications CEO Ilan Greenboim said, "The large number of participants who confirmed their attendance - 400 people - demonstrates the great interest in Israel in developing applications. Two years ago, Nokia made a change when it declared itself to be a services and content company as well as a handset manufacturer. It now integrates the two."
Shaul Elovitch's Eurocom Group unit Eurocom Cellular Communications Ltd. is Nokia's representative in Israel.
Nokia's applications strategy focuses on its huge number of customers compared with Apple's iPhone and Google's Android customers. There are far more Nokia devices around the world than either of the other two devices.
Greenboim said, "There are about two billion Nokia mobile telephones operating on cellular networks worldwide, and about three million Nokia mobile telephones operating on Israeli networks." These are figures which give tremendous advantages to applications developers as it will allow their applications to reach the most customers.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 3, 2009
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