Microsoft and Nokia: An Alliance
Stuart J. Johnston reports in his article in Internetnews.com for August 12, 2009 entitled Microsoft, Nokia Team to Make Office Mobile that these mobile operating system competitors have signed an alliance whereby Microsoft’s Office Mobile applications will run on Nokia’s Symbian operating system. The Microsoft Office Mobile applications will be ported over to the Nokia Eseries Enterprise devices. The plan begins with porting Office Mobile to the Nokia devices, which then will lead to allowing access to Microsoft enterprise products such as SharePoint and Office Communicator. Next year Microsoft will bundle other apps onto the Symbian operating system such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. As RIM’s Blackberry hold’s the lead in the enterprise market-space, the Microsoft/Nokia alliance could provide some significant inroads into that market. With Nokia’s market share for smartphones worldwide at 45%, it is easy to understand Microsoft’s willingness to join forces, at least in this arena.
For some more interesting reading which could help lay a foundation to understanding an alliance such as discussed above see the April 30, 2009 posting in this Blog entitled The Mobile Revolution Is Upon Us.
