Nokia, Microsoft bring Word, Excel and PowerPoint to Symbian phones
It's not all about Windows Phone 7 smartphones yet, oh no...
Microsoft and Nokia have announced that Word, Excel and PowerPoint will be brought to devices running Nokia's Symbian OS next year.
The productivity apps move is the latest fruit of an enterprise alliance announced between Nokia and Microsoft back in 2009 - before the pair agreed to collaborate at the OS level too.
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 (WP7) OS - the smartphone platform Nokia is transitioning to as its primary OS - already supports Word, Excel and PowerPoint but compatibility will be extended to Nokia smartphones running the Belle iteration of the Symbian OS in the first half of 2012, the two companies said today.
Nokia demoed the Microsoft enterprise apps coming to Symbian devices this yearPhoto: Natasha Lomas/silicon.com
The aim is to have a broad church of Nokia devices - both WP7 and Symbian-based handsets - supporting Microsoft apps, according to Nokia, in order to give busineses a wider choice of handsets. Nokia plans to support the Symbian platform until 2016.
The pair also announced a series of other Microsoft productivity apps which will be brought to Symbian Belle devices by the end of this year. These include Microsoft's OneNote note-taking productivity app; Microsoft PowerPoint Broadcast, which enables mobile users to listen to the audio of PowerPoint presentations while viewing the slides on their mobile; Microsoft Lync 2010 for mobile, Redmond's UC and collaboration app for users of its Lync service; and Microsoft Document Connection, a document access and management tool for mobile users.
Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync mail client for Symbian is also being enhanced with additional capabilities such as conversation view, richer search and support for multiple email accounts, the two companies added.
Symbian users must be using Belle to get the updates which will be delivered over the air or via PC download, according to the pair. Existing Nokia Symbian devices that will be able to get the apps include the Nokia N8, C6-01, C7, E6, E7, X7, 700, 701, 600 and Oro.
Last year Nokia and Microsoft announced the Microsoft Communicator app for Symbian users - also as part of its enterprise alliance.