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Category: mobile telephones

Microsoft and Nokia join forces to develop Office for Symbian smartphones

After launching Bing and signing a search agreement with Yahoo, Microsoft announced an alliance with Nokia during a live teleconference on Wednesday in New York City.

The companies will collaborate to deliver an enterprise version of Microsoft Office for Nokia's Symbian devices and optimize data access for corporate customers using Exchange ActiveSync.

By next year, Nokia hopes to ship Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones, starting with its E-series models. Other features the alliance will develop include mobile-optimized versions of enterprise instant messaging and conferencing with Mobile, access to corporate intranets and extranets based on Microsoft SharePoint Server, and enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center.

According to Kai Oistamo, Nokia's executive vice president for devices, forming an alliance with Microsoft does not mean Nokia will develop a Windows Mobile device.

"There are no such plans," said Oistamo. "This is about combining the best of the mobility world."

Although it looks like Microsoft is reconsidering Windows Mobile, Stephen Elop, Microsoft's business division president, says Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones will still compete with each other and against other handsets in the market, such as Apple's iPhone, RIM's Blackberry and the Palm Pre.

"What we're focused here today is saying, 'We need to take the broad productivity experiences as far as we can, to put it in the hands of many people as possible,' and that's clearly what we're doing with this relationship," said Elop. "I think what it really speaks to is an ongoing pattern at Microsoft where we partner with significant players in the industry. You saw in recent announcements with HP for example, where in some quarters we compete, in other quarters we collaborate. And I think the same is true here."

Microsoft hopes to establish its Mobile Office software as the leading rich office mobile application, which will integrate with Nokia's Symbian operating system and hardware devices.

According to data by Gardner, Nokia has 45 percent of the global smartphone marketshare. Recently Nokia entered an alliance with Intel to work on sharing technologies and collaborate on mobile Internet devices.

"With more than 200 million smartphone customers globally, Nokia is the world's largest smartphone manufacturer and a natural partner for us," said Elop. "Today's announcement will enable us to expand Microsoft Office Mobile to Nokia smartphone owners worldwide and allow them to collaborate on Office documents from anywhere, as part of our strategy to provide the best productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser."

"It is about creating the best possible tools to accomplish what you want to do, both professionally and privately, and that's how we want to address the market," said Oistamo.