Nokia Closes Symbian Deal with Accenture, 2,300 Employees Transferred

Nokia has just announced an agreement with Accenture that will make the latter the preferred supplier and the sole provider of support and development software for Symbian smartphones.

Although the partnership between the two companies was announced in June, specific details of the agreement were revealed only recently.

It appears that Symbian smartphone owners will continue to receive software updates and dedicated support at least until 2016.

Furthermore, approximately 2,300 Nokia employees from China, Finland, India, the United Kingdom and the United States will transfer to Accenture.

“We are focused on growing our business in mobility and embedded software. The addition of these highly skilled technologists and engineers to Accenture will strengthen our capabilities in these areas. We look forward to supporting Nokia in the execution of its strategy,” said Marty Cole, chief executive, Accenture Communications, Media & Technology operating group.

On related news, Nokia also stated that Accenture will be its preferred supplier in its transition to Windows Phone.

In this regard, Accenture announced it will work with one of its majority owned companies, Avanade that focuses on Microsoft technologies to provide any software-related products that the Finnish company might need in the future.

According to the initial agreement, Nokia planned to transfer around 3,000 employees to Accenture, after dismantling its Symbian business.

However, between June and September around 700 persons decided to accept offers coming from other businesses or were redeployed within Nokia.

It will be interesting to see how bad Nokia's move will disturb the release calendar of various software updates for current Symbian smartphones.

Given the fact that the Finnish giant switched its focus on Windows Phone mobile platform and decided to outsource the Symbian software development to a third-party company, now will be a good time for Symbian smartphone users to replace their devices.