Nokia and Microsoft debut alliance app Tweet

Nokia and Microsoft today unveiled the first application from their alliance announced last August. Microsoft’s messaging client – Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile – will initially be available on Nokia’s ESeries devices running the Symbian platform. Owners of Nokia’s E72 and E52 devices can download the English version today from Nokia’s Ovi store, whilst the companies plan to deliver Communicator Mobile for Nokia pre-installed on select Nokia smartphones in the future and plan to support additional devices, including the recently announced Nokia E5. "Our alliance with Nokia aims to bring the Office productivity experience to the millions of people using Nokia smartphones around the world," said Kirt Debique, general manager at Microsoft, in a statement. "With the arrival of Communicator Mobile for Nokia today, we have a great start to fulfilling our joint vision."

Communicator Mobile enables people to see their colleagues' availability, and click to communicate with them using the best method, from IM to email, text to phone call. The names and status of colleagues are embedded directly into the devices' contacts application, enabling people to update their own presence, start and join instant messaging sessions, and begin calls directly from the contact card. "It meets all of the requirements for enterprise: cost effective to implement, secure, familiar and reliable,” claimed Ukko Lappalainen, VP at Nokia. “We have hundreds of engineers across both companies working on the alliance and this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Kai Oistamo, the head of Nokia’s device division, said in an interview with Bloomberg. He declined to comment specifically on the next products from the companies. A Bloomberg report added that an earlier, Java-based version of the Communicator for Nokia handsets is “really not comparable” in usability and functions to the new version, which is more integrated with the Symbian platform, according to a Nokia spokesperson.

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