* Will bring business communications, collaboraation to Nokia’s Symbian devices
Microsoft and Nokia have started to work together on design, development and marketing — bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia’s Symbian devices. The collaborative solutions will first become available on the Nokia Eseries, eventually extending to a broader range of Nokia smartphones. Stephen Elop, Microsoft business division president, and Kai Öistämö, Nokia’s executive vice president for devices, announced the agreement at a joint press conference on Aug.12, 2009.
“With more than 200 million smartphone customers globally, Nokia is the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer and a natural partner for us,” Elop said.. The agreement “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.”
Commenting for Nokia, Öistämö said, “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.”
Nokia plans to offer Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones in 2010, followed by other Office applications and related software and services including:
* The ability to view, edit, create and share with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.
* Instant messaging, presence, conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile.
* Mobile access Microsoft SharePoint Server portals.
* Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center.
Our observations: as announcements go, this one is pretty big because it brings more than advanced communications to the smartphone, and it also positions Nokia to better compete against future business applications likely to evolve for the iPhone and Google Android. While we don’t expect to see too many mobile workers throw out the laptop and use a mobile handset to routinely create PowerPoint slides, having smartphone access to common desktop productivity tools will certainly benefit enterprise mobility.
Next time: Another announcement that improve conditions for the mobile worker.
