14 DAY TRIAL // Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia and Redmond-based software giant Microsoft announced a joint teleconference set for today, August 12, 2009, from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EDT. The terms of the agreement between the two companies are to be announced by Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft Business Division, and Kai Oistamo, executive vice president for Nokia Devices.
The two haven't unveiled any details on what the conference would be about, yet some of the voices over the Internet suggest that they might announce a deal to bring Microsoft’s Office software solution to Nokia mobile phones (until now only available on Windows Mobile-powered handsets). However, it seems that neither of the companies commented on the matter so far.
A deal regarding the availability of Office on Nokia handsets would make a lot of sense, it seems. The Redmond company already announced that its Office 2010 product would come with browser-based variants of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. Basically, this means that the applications will be capable of running inside the web browsers present on Nokia's phones, and the agreement might involve these Office Web Apps.
On the other hand, the deal might also bring a customized flavor of Office 2010 for Mobile on Nokia devices, although Microsoft hasn't yet delivered the test version of the solution (access to Office Web Apps hasn't been offered yet either). Whether the duo will announce a deal regarding the Office Web Apps or Office 2010 for Mobile, or even both of them, remains to be seen.
This is not the first time Nokia and Microsoft partner. Back in 2007 the duo announced an agreement regarding the availability of Windows Live services on select Nokia phones, while last year they made public a deal for porting Silverlight to handsets running under Symbian. Moreover, Nokia's devices can connect to Exchange Servers using Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol.