One finger in the throat and one in the rectum makes a good diagnostician - Sir William Osler
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Nokia launches Microsoft Apps
FINNISH PHONE MAKER Nokia is launching Microsoft Apps, an update to its Symbian Belle mobile operating system (OS), as it promotes its latest Symbian smartphones to business users.
The free updates include Microsoft's 'productivity' applications including Microsoft Lync Mobile, Onenote, Powerpoint Broadcast and Microsoft Document Connection, which will be added this year. Next year, Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint will be added as native applications.
Microsoft Apps will be delivered via a software update over the air or PC download and will work on the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7, and new handsets, the Nokia 700, Nokia 701, Nokia 600 and Nokia Oro.
Nokia told The INQUIRER that the move to add Microsoft Apps to Symbian was decided before its wider collaboration with Microsoft. Despite its intention to eventually drop Symbian, Nokia has said it will support the OS until 2016.
We've seen a demo of Microsoft Apps on Symbian Belle and it's looks well integrated, so it might be useful for business users on the move.
However, for everyone else other Symbian Belle features will be more enticing. Symbian Belle increases the number of home screens from three to six, providing more room to display applications and services.
Live widgets now come in five different sizes, giving users more flexibility to personalise their handsets. Symbian Belle includes a pull-down menu and taskbar to access notifications from any of the home screens, plus enhancements to its web browser.
It also features single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capability, which allows contacts, videos and images to be shared with other NFC-enabled devices and smartphones, as well as pairing with NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as speakers and headsets. µ
Tags: Software
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"Despite its intention to eventually drop Symbian, Nokia has said it will support the OS until 2016."
I felt sad about this for those loyal Symbian users. But anyway, it's still 5 years to go and anything can happen.
"support the OS until 2016."
Pity you don't actually support the phones! I've got an N97 here which is still under a 24 month contract... It's never going to see another firmware update is it Nokia. Despite being a Symbian handset.
Guess what, it's the first phone I have dumped before the end of a contract, and the HTC Android handset in my pocket is the first handset I have bought outside of a contract.
Guess who's not on my shopping list when I buy the next phone?
Nokia shareholders should monetize its patents and liquidate the company instead of paying the bonuses and salary of elop and subordinates. It can fetch a decent amount if it sold its technology and patents to google or apple or microsoft instead of bleeding to death.
if the Microsoft stooge hadn't trashed Symbian unnecessarily. He must have known that quite credible updates (Belle etc.) were in the pipeline, but he still trashed the entire platform and market leading ecosystem in order to justify the switch to a platform with no ecosystem.
Why would any business invest in Symbian devices when operators don't want to sell them? Why would any business invest time and money in any Nokia platform when Nokia don't believe in them themselves? And nobody is interested in WP7.
This announcement is only for Microsofts long term benefit, not Nokias.
Microsoft committed to providing Office apps on Symbian back in 2009 - a deal negotiated by none other than Elop while he headed the Business Unit at Microsoft.
My guess is Microsoft never had any plans to actually deliver on their commitment, but now that Elop has ruined Nokia and in particular Symbian, and is driving Nokia down a Microsoft OS path these apps suddenly appear.
I suppose Microsoft think that if companies buy into the tattered remains of Symbian and lock themselves into mobile Microsoft apps, they'll switch more easily when WP7 devices launch next year. What is clear that without Nokia committing to WP7, these Microsoft apps still wouldn't be available on Symbian, despite Microsoft committing to a 2010 release back in 2009.
That what happens when you make deals with Microsoft, or specifically Elop - you get shafted, until it suits Microsoft.