Only one day after showcasing its enhanced Ovi platform, the giant Nokia announced that, as of today, all of its Symbian S60 3rd Edition smartphones are compatible with Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync. This enlarges the number of Mail for Exchange-ready Nokia devices to 43 phone models and about 80 million units (the estimated number of S60 3rd Edition handsets that are currently in use, worldwide).

Nokia further announced that all the Eseries and Nseries smartphones released in the future would come with embedded Mail for Exchange. When connected to the Exchange Server 2007, Mail for Exchange offers features like “Out of Office” messaging, Autodiscover, synchronization when roaming and Flag status, all of which should provide users with the best-possible mobile email experience.

"The Nokia-Microsoft collaboration to bring corporate mobile email to businesses and mobile professionals is truly unbeatable,” declared Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Markets, Nokia. “No other device manufacturer provides the wide range of devices that we have which immediately mobilize the hundreds of millions of email accounts from Microsoft Exchange. The costs of mobility are contained as companies are able to utilize existing Microsoft Exchange infrastructure, and there is also the strong possibility that a large number of employees already have one or more of the 43 Nokia devices that enable Exchange ActiveSync."

Terry Myerson, Corporate Vice President, Exchange Server, Microsoft Corp., added, "Nokia is a valued partner and we are pleased they are making it easier for their approximately 80 million S60 3rd Edition customers to realize the benefits of Exchange Server. This announcement with Nokia further demonstrates the importance consumers and businesses place on accessing Exchange Server data from mobile devices in addition to traditional desktop clients. Nokia's announcement today will help give its users that access and help make them more productive."

Companies that use Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync can set-up Mail for Exchange for free on their Nokia devices. The access to office email, tasks and calendar is made via the users' already existing data plan service.