Will Developers Shun Apple for Ovi?

The world of mobile phones is a complicated one to those on the inside - and, for those on the outside, it's still confusing. What with new handsets, deals, manufacturers and network provider news cropping up all the time, it's easy to get lost when all you want to do is find the best mobile phone for you. It seems that all developers and manufacturers do is fight with each other which, really, makes sense - after all, it is a marketplace just like any other, and a healthy dose of competition usually means rewards for the consumers.

The latest battle taking place seems to be with two of the biggest players in the industry, Nokia and Apple. Nokia is the most popular mobile phone manufacturer in the world, having sold millions upon millions of devices across the globe. Apple is also popular, but it doesn't have the decade plus of experience and sales that Nokia has - though it is undoubtedly hoping to catch up.

What is causing the two to tear off the gloves this time around is something only smartphone manufacturers could fight about: the internet. Nokia's Ovi is the manufacturer's big foray into the world of mobile internet, a world where players like Apple, Microsoft and Google are already very well established. Focussing on five key areas - games, messaging, music, maps and media - Ovi promises to deliver to users exactly the sort of convenient applications that make mobile internet so useful - so what does this mean for its rivals?

It could be the case that developers for Apple's increasingly overflowing App Store begin to think about making the migration to another company. Anybody who has experienced the App Store will be more than aware of its abundance in the weird, wacky and utterly pointless when it comes to applications that will make you wonder why the developer that created it ever had the time. Eager to start again on a platform that has gone relatively untarnished so far, the more serious developers could feel that Nokia would be a little more appreciative of their efforts.

Whatever happens, it's undoubted that a fierce battle is on the hands of our favourite mobile players - and it'll be interesting to see how companies like Microsoft and Google cope with the new challenger as well as the current King of Apps, Apple. Amidst all this fighting is a fantastic app store really the best way to win users or should mobile phone service operators perhaps be focussing more on money saving techniques like cheap mobile calls?