Taking on RIM
The not very well kept secret of Microsoft and Nokia's collaboration has now been officially announced: The two companies have formed a global alliance to "design, develop and market mobile productivity solutions".
This is the first time Microsoft will develop productivity software for another mobile platform and appears to be designed primarily to challenge RIM - the company behind Blackberry - in the business mobile market.
It includes Office Mobile, Communicator Mobile and other collaboration and device management software to Nokia's business smartphones, which use the Symbian (as opposed to Windows Mobile) operating system.
"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," said Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's business division.
"If you are going to provide a seamless and integrated productivity experience on a mobile device, Microsoft is an ideal partner," said Nokia's EVP for devices, Kai 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."
While still by far the biggest handset maker in the world, Nokia is in danger of getting left behind in the smartphone market, the only mobile handset sector showing growth right now. Alliances with the biggest companies in the PC sector seem to be central to its strategy to overcome this, having formed a strategic relationship with Intel back in June.
Rather embarrassingly, the live conference - using Microsoft Live Meeting - suffered a number of technical hitches. It looks like the new alliance has its work cut out for it if it's to revolutionise business communications.
