Microsoft on Tuesday announced it will replace Nokia Store in its Nokia feature phones in favor of the Opera Mobile Store as its default app store.
This means that users of classic Nokia phones, such as the Asha series, Symbian, and Nokia X handsets will be automatically redirected to Opera Mobile Store beginning in the first quarter of 2015. The migration is expected to be over by June 2015. At that point the Nokia Store will be made to shut down.
The Opera Mobile Store currently has close to more than 300,000 apps and games in 13 categories and serves around 200 million unique monthly users, according to Microsoft.
“We continue to sell and support classic Nokia devices, which remain popular in many parts of the world,” said Rich Bernardo, Vice President of Phones at Microsoft.
“We’re delighted to partner with Opera Software and continue to provide a reliable app store experience for consumers and developers alike”.
Commenting on the deal, Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software said “When the current users of the Nokia Store are migrated to Opera Mobile Store, they will continue to get fresh, interesting apps for their Nokia phones.”
“The Opera Mobile Store becomes an even more significant player in the app store market, and Nokia mobile phone users get a first-class app store for years to come.”
Once the transition is done, the Opera Mobile Store would become the third largest app store in terms of downloads behind Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
