GetJar slams Nokia claim to be 2nd largest after iPhone app store

You always have to keep an eye out for those independents. One of the longest standing application stores in existence, GetJar, is stepping up to Nokia as the Finnish giant claims it has the second largest app store after iTunes. But GetJar claims that Ovi comes third.

Who are the players here?

Ovi is the Nokia-centric mobile application store that it set up as a reaction the success of the iTunes store. It runs along much the same lines as iTunes does - offering a selection of paid and free applications for download to devices running a Nokia OS.

GetJar has an extremely different model. It is an independent app store, providing software that will run on Blackberry, Android, Samsung, LG, Palm and Sony Ericsson. And also on Nokia phones. Another big difference is that GetJar ONLY provides free applications (although paid apps are on their way).

What’s the story?

Earlier this week [Forbes], Nokia’s VP of Services Tero Ojanpero made the claim that the Ovi Store was the 2nd biggest in the world. This came as a shock to GetJar, since it had been widely reported that GetJar was the 2nd biggest less than a week beforehand when it won the Mobile Excellence Award for Best Mobile Service.

GetJar has since set about attempting to rectify what it sees as an error. GoMo News was contacted by GetJar, where CEO Ilja Laurs made the following claims:

“With over 700 million downloads to date GetJar is the 2nd largest app store by downloads behind Apple. Ovi is doing 1M downloads a day. But where are those downloads coming from? Keep in mind that Ovi supports apps, wallpapers, widgets and music. The real question is what % of Ovi’s downloads are actually coming from apps? By contrast, our users download over 50 million mobile apps a month, or about 1.7 million apps a day. We firmly believe that GetJar is the No. 2 app store after Apple’s App Store. We also offer support for 1,700 different handsets or about 95% of the global phone market and have 300,000 registered developers and 50,000 registered beta testers.”
GetJar scores some points with me for having some key metrics clearly displayed on their website:

•    Total downloads to date: 711,060,549
•    Total Game/Application Files: 58,425
•    Registered developers: 305,635
•    Supported Devices: 1,963
•    Registered beta-testers: 50,221

What we think?

A year ago, I would have shrugged this story off as squabbling. But that’s not a real option anymore - application stores have become Serious Business during 2009. And a big part of this is public perception; the real battle for app stores is fought in the marketing space. So when someone claims that they’re bigger business than you are, you can’t leave that go unchallenged. It is especially important for GetJar to fight this claim as hard as it can. After all, it doesn’t have the luxury of being attached to a specific device. It may have partners in the app space, but there’s no parent company providing support for GetJar. Being independent means taking greater risk, and there’s no space there to allow a larger company like Nokia to steal your thunder.