Microsoft and Nokia bringing Office to Symbian next year

The world's largest software maker and the world's largest smartphone manufacturer are going

to join forces in an attempt to bring some desktop productivity applications to the mobile space. As expected, and despite their long-standing competition, Microsoft and Nokia have agreed to an alliance that will bring Microsoft Office and related software on the Symbian mobile operating system.

Up until today's announcement, native versions of mobile Office have been limited to Windows Mobile, making this is the first time that Microsoft is developing Office software for another company's platform for handheld devices. Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Nokia's Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Öistämö made the announcement via a teleconference call in which they emphasized that both companies are still looking into more ways to collaborate.

Nokia is already providing access to e-mail and other personal information using Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. Today's agreement, however, means that next year, the following Microsoft solutions will start to appear on the Nokia E-series:

• Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile: Enterprise instant messaging and presence designed for conferencing and collaboration
• Microsoft Office Mobile: the ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents with mobile versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote
• Microsoft SharePoint Server: Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals
• Microsoft System Center: Enterprise device management.

The two companies emphasized that these solutions will eventually be brought to other Symbian devices. Nokia intends to start by shipping Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones first, but exact timing has not been disclosed. The two companies have agreed to market these products to pretty much everyone: businesses, carriers, and individuals.

Nokia holds about 45 percent of the mobile market, which will make this a very significant move for Microsoft in terms of pushing its Office products into the mobile space. Elop emphasized during the call that Microsoft is still deeply committed to Windows Mobile and Nokia is equally committed to Symbian. The latter is easy to believe, but the former is a bit harder: this partnership means Windows Mobile lost one of its biggest advantages: Office exclusivity. Nokia again denied that it would release a Windows Mobile device, meaning that Microsoft remains shut out by the world's top handset maker.

Nokia and Microsoft have been rivals for years in cellphone operating systems, and it appears they will continue to be, despite today's agreement. When asked if Nokia is making this move to better compete with Apple in North America, Öistämö replied that it's much bigger than that. He ended by saying, "if any company should be worried about this, it should be RIM."

When asked about whether Nokia devices had the muscle to run Office Mobile, Öistämö said he wasn't worried.

By the time this deal comes to fruition, it's possible that any mobile device with a Web browser will be able to handle some Office functionality. With Office 2010, Microsoft is also planning to release Office Web Applications (browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote) but that release is completely separate from today's deal for Office Mobile. The Office Web Applications will support Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5 on Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as Safari 4 on Mac. Testers will get access to the Office Web Apps in August and the final versions will arrive in the first half of 2010, when the whole Office 2010 suite is expected to arrive.

Microsoft has not specified whether mobile browsers will be able to run the Office Web Applications, but even if they could, native mobile software will undoubtedly be more powerful (just like the client version of Microsoft Office should be superior to the Office Web Applications).

It's quite possible that mobile browsers simply can't yet deliver what Office requires. For example, we already know that Silverlight will be used to improve the experience of at least two Office Web apps, and a mobile version of Silverlight hasn't even arrived in beta form.

This isn't the first time the two companies have made agreements in regards to Microsoft technologies. In August 2007, Nokia agreed to offer Windows Live on a handful of its mobile phones. In March 2008, Microsoft and Nokia agreed to port Silverlight to mobile phones running the Symbian operating system, though nothing has come of this to date. This high level announcement, however, suggests that an actual product will emerge from this deal.