Rumour: Nokia to launch its own App Store

Nokia is the latest mobile firm rumoured to be on the verge of launching its own App Store, with online speculation focusing on next week's Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona as the likely announcement date.

The rumour has come from Russian site Mobile-Review, which claims that the strategy behind the store isn't finalised yet, but that the revenue share for developers is “very attractive”.

The problem with this rumour is that Nokia already has its own on-device application store - Nokia Download - while with games specifically it has the N-Gage client, which includes its own store interface.

This doesn't mean the company isn't up to something, of course. It's not far-fetched to suggest Nokia may launch one Ovi-branded application store, running on handsets and PCs, incorporating the existing Download and N-Gage stores.

After all, Nokia has planned to sell N-Gage games online as well as on-handset for some time, but the functionality hasn't launched yet. Could they be waiting for the launch of a unified application store?

All eyes will be on the company's press conference at Mobile World Congress next week.