On the lines of Apple's App Store, Nokia Tuesday opened its online software and content store - Ovi Store - which will enable the over 50 million users of Nokia phones to download applications, videos, games, and podcasts.

The company said that the store is essentially a one-stop-shop for free and paid content, ranging over 20,000 different items.

By the way of the online store, the visitors can not only view items compatible with their respective phones, but the whole inventory of items as well. The basic software client has currently been made available in English, Italian, Russian, German, and Spanish.

In all, the new Nokia online store facility will be made available to clients in eight countries - Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Spain, Singapore and UK. In these countries, there is support for operator billing, while elsewhere in the world, users would have to pay using credit cards.

Nokia initiated the roll out of its online store on Monday, opening it to users of some of its phone models in Australia and Singapore. The company AT&T is planning to make the store available to its phone users in the US later in 2009.

Analyst Ben Wood, of CCS Insight, said that Nokia would have to attempt aggressive advertising measures to create awareness about the store, and for generating developer interest.