Nokia launched the Ovi app store today overseas and in the U.S. today. The 50 million Nokia phone users will now be able to download applications and game to their Nokia devices. Ovi consolidates all of the existing Nokia content into a single location for users to access and download.

However, there have been some delays here in the U.S. AT&T will be delaying phone bill integration until later in the year, preventing users from charging the applications straight to their phone bill. Users can still use credit cards to purchase apps, but this is still expected to hamper application sales. There were also performance and bandwidth issues at launch. When the Ovi app store opened, there was an unusually high volume of traffic, resulting in speed and performance problems for users trying to access the store.

Companies and developers looking to get their content published on Ovi can go to publish.ovi.com. Ovi will feature applications for smartphones and feature phones alike, including productivity apps, tools, games, and social networking applications. Analysts are looking at the launch of Ovi as the right step in bringing Nokia back to relevance in the U.S. market, where subsidized smartphones and feature phones have long-dominated the Finnish handset maker, who is still the number one producer of mobile phones in the world.

[Via Internet News]