Microsoft, Nokia, Orange and O2 have launched mobile phone application stores in a bid to catch up on Apple’s dominance of the mobile phone software market.

The companies hope that piggybacking on the phenomenal success of Apple’s “App Store”, which allows users to download games and other services, will help them to counter a collapse mobile phone sales.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who yesterday launched the company’s Windows Marketplace service at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, said the store will take mobile phones to “another level”.

“It’s no longer about how the phone works by itself but how it works with the internet,” he said. “It is your instant access to all the people and information that you care about.”

Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone company, and the network operators O2 and Orange also launched rival stores. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia’s chief executive, said the company will collect 30pc of the revenue paid to software developers, such as EA Games and Lonely Planet, through its Ovi application store.
Read more