Nokia announced that they will be opening the doors to their first app store starting in May 09′. Developers and content providers can begin uploading content to publish.ovi.com starting in the beginning of March.

Nokia’s Ovi store sets itself apart from others in that it will be customized for each user based on location and social activity. This means that you will have the ability to purchase and download services from WidSets, Mosh, Download!, images, video, and all published applications all tailored to your personalized usage patterns and location based specifics. You will be able to get all of this content from one location, the Ovi store, right on your phone as well as the web.

The first device to support the Ovi store will be the Nokia N97, set to launch this June in most European countries. Unfortunately, as always the NAM version of the N97 still has no release date. If I had to guess it will be at least 3 to 4 months before we see all the US 3G goodness.

The following statement describes what the sets the Ovi store apart from others:

“The Ovi Store will enable our devices to uniquely surface relevant
content for consumers based on the people who matter to them and the
particular places they happen to be, bringing a new generation of media
services to the fingertips of millions of people around the world,” said Tero
Ojanpera, Executive Vice President, Nokia Services. “By leveraging our
strengths as a company and the assets of our partners, the Ovi Store is a
’smart store’ that will change the way our consumers discover and consume
content on their mobile devices, ultimately making the experience easier,
more fun and most importantly, more relevant.”

This is very excited news for us dedicated S60 followers for sure. I’m still a bit worried that supported devices will take too long to gain support like almost everything that Nokia releases. Will the Nokia 5800 Xpress bes supported at release time, N96? I guess we will just have to wait and see as more news hits the wire. Either way I’m very excited about this announcement and look forward to trying it out myself. More news to come as I hear it.

Read More on the ovi site