Nokia OVI Store top application store in China

If you think the App Store battle only revolves around Apple and Android, then you’d surprised because such is not the case when it comes to China.

iResearch recently released a study called The 2010 China Mobile Application Report and it shows that Nokia’s OVI Store and China Mobile’s Mobile Market are dominating the Chinese application store market with the highest proportion of access, at 65.2% and 57.7% respectively.

It all makes sense because China, which as of June 2010 has 277 million mobile internet users, is still dominated by non-english speaking citizens. The sheer number of Nokia handset users is the reason for OVI Store’s dominance. On the other hand, China Mobile gets its users by being the top mobile carrier in China. The study highlights the importance of localization as a strategy to develop the Chinese market.

Apple’s App Store and the Android Market are expected to gain momentum however, the research points out that for the local telco app stores to continue keep their positions, they should offer alternative means of distribution and payment channels.

Keep in mind though that this survey is quite vague as it only measures how often people access the app stores. It is, however, still a good indicator on the broad app store landscape in China.