Microsoft and Nokia expected to bring Office to Nokia phones

By | August 11, 2009, 1:44pm PDT

Microsoft and Nokia are expected to announce on August 12 details of a distribution agreement for Microsoft’s Office on Nokia mobile phones.

Microsoft has yet to field a test build of its Office 2010 for Mobile product. It also still has not provided testers with access to its promised Office Web Apps, the browser-based Office 2010 complements of a number of its Office apps.

It’s not clear whether Nokia will preload a customized version of Office Mobile on select models of the company’s phones or simply offer Office Web Apps access — which any vendor with a cellphone with a browser will be able to do — or do both. On August 11, Microsoft officials declined to comment.

Update (August 12): The answer: It’s Office Mobile, not Web apps, being ported to the Symbian phones. The pair also are going to port Office Communicator to Symbian and make various Microsoft collaboration services available on Nokia E Series (and other unnamed Nokia phones) going forward.

Microsoft and Nokia are expected to share more specifics about the Office deal during a press conference at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft Business Division, and Kai Oistamo, executive vice president for Nokia Devices, are slated to announce the terms of the partnership.

Microsoft and Nokia announced a deal in 2008 via which the pair would work on a port of Silverlight to Nokia mobile phones running the Symbian operating system. The year before, Microsoft and Nokia inked a deal to make Windows Live services available on select Nokia phones.

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Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

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Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

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Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

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RE: Microsoft and Nokia expected to bring Office to Nokia phones
dfwekrwe79-24353640703329069994666366076869 Updated - 11th Nov
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0 Votes
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That's pretty interesting...
Sleeper Service 11th Aug 2009
...I can't imagine Quick Office will be too happy about this though.

0 Votes
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Some time ago MS and Nokia announced that
honeymonster 11th Aug 2009
they agreed to port Silverlight to Series 60 phones, IIRC.

I don't know how far they have advanced, but if MS is able to deliver office web apps via Silverlight on Nokia phones, it could become *very* interesting.
0 Votes
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Not in the US, they're not...
Henry Miller 12th Aug 2009
At least not if it includes Word:


http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/176223.asp

"A Texas judge ruled Tuesday that Microsoft cannot sell one of its flagship products, Word, in the United States because of patent infringement.

"Judge Leonard Davis, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ordered a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML," according to an announcement by the plaintiff, Toronto-based i4i Inc."
0 Votes
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and I've found by simply using the newest web browser Skyfire, I can use Gmail, Google Docs 100% functionality--AJAX and all.

Not to mention watching Hulu. Did I mention you can watch Hulu with Skyfire? wink

MS Office?
We don't need no stinkin' MS Office!

wink
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Symbian OS?
lefty.crupps 12th Aug 2009
So now MS is supporting a non-Windows-Mobile OS?

If they got out of the OS game and sold their software for multiple OSes, they may survive the next 20 years. But if MS continues to 'wow' us with their OSes, I wouldn't expect them to last too long as a major player. Too many pies, too few fingers, too many security holes.
0 Votes
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Nokia E63 and Quick Office
bunkport 12th Aug 2009
That's my combo and I'm sticking with it. It reads and I can edit MS Excel, Word, and Powerpoint files in native format. I actually thought it was some mobile version of MS Office for Symbian OS. Since I'm not looking to do anything to exotic on a smartphone it is more than adequate for my purposes.

Oh, I do hope it includes the ribbon.
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RE: Microsoft and Nokia expected to bring Office to Nokia phones
dfwekrwe79-24353640703329069994666366076869 Updated - 11th Nov
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