What are Microsoft and Nokia talking about behind closed doors?

Posted on 12-08-2009

If there needed to be any more indicators of how dominant forces like Apple, Google and BlackBerry have become in the mobile market, here’s the best one yet. In the unlikeliest of tie-ups, Microsoft and Nokia are looking to make a deal to build a mobile version of Microsoft’s Office suite, reports the Wall Street Journal.

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It was just a short while ago that Symbian and Windows Mobile ruled the mobile operating system market for high-end phones; QuickOffice was routinely compared to Microsoft’s Pocket Office with staunch loyalists on both sides. To be honest, we have always found QuickOffice to be vastly superior to Pocket Office, so the availability of the latter would not entice us in any way.

But last year, Microsoft and Nokia cut a deal that made it easier for users of Nokia phones to access email on corporate networks running Microsoft's Exchange software.

And the new deal with Nokia, the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, could help Microsoft play a broader role in mobile devices while fortifying its Office business in the face of competition from free Web-based word processors, spreadsheets and other applications from Google, Sun Microsystems, etc.

The two companies said on Tuesday that they will hold a press conference on Wednesday to discuss an alliance, without providing details. Let’s see where this goes…

Source: WSJ