In a Friday announcement, the Finnish smartphone maker Nokia revealed that it is acquiring the San Francisco-based Motally - a small, privately-held mobile analytics firm that offers a software-usage tracking service to mobile app developers.

The key goal of Motally - which specializes in tracking and reporting usage statistics on mobile websites and applications – is to enable developers improve and optimize their apps on the basis of their awareness about the manner their apps are used by people. 

Nokia has said that since it intends using Motally for offering support to developers who sell apps via the Nokia Ovi Store, the service offered by Motally will essentially be adapted to work with Symbian, MeeGo, Qt, and Java. However, Nokia also added that it will continue offering support for the existing Motally customers.

Though there has been no official disclosure about the financial terms of Nokia’s acquisition of Motally – a company whose staff comprises only eight members -, the deal is likely to come through in the 2010 third quarter, following the standard closing conditions.

Talking about the Motally takeover, Marco Argenti, Nokia’s Vice President of Media, said in a statement: “The acquisition underpins Nokia's drive to deliver in-application and mobile web browsing analytics to Ovi's growing, global eco-system of developers and publishers, enabling partners to better connect with their customers and optimize and monetize their offering.”