Nokia has used its annual ‘Nokia World’ conference in Germany this week to announce a series of new APIs for its range of Ovi Internet services and a beta version of the Ovi Software Developer Kit (SDK). The strategy is aimed at making it easier for web publishers and developers to create applications based on Ovi. The handset vendor said it will progressively roll-out web and mobile APIs for its services, beginning with the Ovi Maps Player API and the Ovi Navigation Player API, which will enable location-based services for smartphones. “This is just the beginning. We will work in close cooperation with developers to evolve the offering, starting with social location solutions,” said Nokia’s Niklas Savander. Nokia said it is already working with key partners such as Lonely Planet, Deutsche Bahn, Associated Press, Qype, National Geographic, Deutsche Telekom Medien and Langenscheidt to create example applications using the Ovi SDK Beta and Ovi APIs. Nokia is making the Ovi SDK Beta and Ovi APIs available to developers who join the Ovi for Developers beta programme on the Forum Nokia Developer Community site. The first applications created using the Ovi SDK and Ovi APIs are expected to appear on the Ovi Store in 2010.

One Ovi application showcased at the show this week was Facebook; Henri Moissinac – director of mobile at the social network – delivered a keynote at the show highlighting the close collaboration between the two companies. “Since its release in June, the Facebook application for Nokia is available for download in more than 150 countries and is currently one of the most distributed applications in the Ovi Store,” Moissinac said. “Needless to say, it’s really exciting to be working so closely with the largest handset manufacturer in the world to bring our 250 million users worldwide an innovative Facebook experience on their mobile devices – and this is just the beginning.” Yesterday, Nokia launched the ‘Lifecasting with Ovi’ service, which claims to be the first application to let people publish their location and status updates directly to their Facebook account from the homescreen of a mobile device.