“Top executives from Microsoft and Nokia elaborated on their new alliance in a conference call this morning,” Steve Lohr blogs for The New York Times. “The takeaway? First, the partnership is aimed initially at Research in Motion and loosening the hold that its popular BlackBerry e-mail software and service has on business customers.”
“Second, Microsoft is unbundling its strategy in the cellphone market, with Microsoft’s Office division free to step away from the company’s operating system business. And Microsoft is trying to use its powerful Office franchise — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, but also collaboration tools like SharePoint — to shift the smartphone technology competition to its advantage,” Lohr reports.
“But any assault will be a long-term challenge. The first Microsoft Office product to be on Nokia smartphones, which run the Symbian operating system, will be its Mobile Communicator, which allows business users to find and then communicate with colleagues by instant messages. That offering will come next year on one of Nokia’s E-series phones for business customers,” Lohr reports. “The full range of Office productivity and collaboration software will follow, and the two companies have pledged to jointly develop new applications, tailored for Nokia smartphones.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Two wrongs don’t make a right, “Office” is less important on mobile devices than Microsoft (and now Nokia) would like to think, and this team assault certainly doesn’t bode well when their “target” is *ahem* the wrong company.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sara R.” for the heads up.]