MOBILESINDIA: Nokia Smartphones To Get Microsoft Office Mobile!

Taking on BlackBerry maker, Microsoft and Nokia have entered into an alliance to deliver an enterprise-grade solution for mobile productivity. The two companies will begin collaborating immediately on the design, development and marketing of productivity solutions for the mobile professional, bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia's Symbian devices. These solutions will be available for a broad range of Nokia smartphones starting with the company's business-optimised range, Nokia Eseries. The two companies will also market these solutions to businesses, carriers and individuals.
Stephen Elop, president, business division, Microsoft and Kai Oistamo, executive vice president, devices, Nokia announced the agreement, outlining a shared vision for the future of mobile productivity. This is the first time that either company has embarked on an alliance of this scope and nature.

Nokia has been losing market share to rival cellphone makers like Research In Motion (RIM) and Apple. According to Gartner, Nokia saw its share of the smartphone market decline to 45 per cent in the second quarter of 2009, from 47.4 per cent a year ago. On the other hand, RIM's smartphone market share rose from 17.3 to 18.7 per cent and Apple soared to 13.3 per cent from 2.8 per cent in the same period.

While for Microsoft, the deal provides with a way to increase the appeal of its Office franchise to business audience, for Nokia "this is about creating a formidable challenge for RIM more than anyone else," as Kai Oistamo puts it.

"With more than 200 million smartphone customers globally, Nokia is the world's largest smartphone manufacturer and a natural partner for us," said Stephen 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."

"If you are going to provide a seamless and integrated productivity experience on a mobile device, Microsoft is an ideal partner," said Oistamo. "Together with Microsoft, we will develop new and innovative user experiences for employees of small and large businesses alike, ensuring Nokia's smartphones are an integral part of the office and home-office environment, and addressing the significant opportunity in mobile enterprise productivity."

This announcement builds on the existing work Nokia is doing by optimising access to e-mail and other personal information with Exchange ActiveSync. Next year, Nokia intends to start shipping Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones, followed by other Office applications and related software and services in the future.

These will include: the ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimised versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote; enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimised conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile; mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server; and enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center.