Nokia Teams Up with Microsoft to Topple BlackBerry

And the smartphone battlefield just took on a major facelift. It’s undeniable that the BlackBerry series from Research in Motion is the preferred business device for corporate customers, but a new alliance could topple that domination. Microsoft and Nokia are buddying up.

This isn’t quite as epic as a true merger, but Microsoft and Nokia have announced an alliance to “bring business software to smartphones” that can better compete against BlackBerry. Nokia’s Symbian is pretty popular worldwide, but it’s not quite there.

As such, the agreement will see the inclusion of Microsoft Office applications, in mobile form of course, in Nokia handsets. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and messaging (Outlook?) applications for “a range” of Nokia handsets, which happen to make up 45% of the worldwide smartphone market.

This may not present an immediate threat to the more consumer-oriented Apple iPhone, but having a stronger business suite on Nokia smartphones could represent a definite challenge to the enterprise-minded BlackBerry market. Look for the first batch of Nokia phones with Microsoft Office to ship later this year.

Source: Reuters