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Nokia today announced the appointment of Stephen Elop, currently the President of Microsoft’s Business Division (i.e. mostly Office), as their new president and CEO starting September 21. Nokia needed a change since they have been left as far behind in the smartphone race as Microsoft, but observers are skeptical if Elop is the right man for a tough job (similar thoughts here).
As for Microsoft, no replacement has been named and now Steve Ballmer has two major Microsoft businesses reporting directly to him, the Business Division and the Entertainment & Devices Division.
Microsoft and Nokia announced today "an alliance that is set to deliver a groundbreaking, enterprise-grade solution for mobile productivity" on Nokia phones.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will begin collaborating immediately on the design, development and marketing of productivity solutions for the mobile professional, bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia’s Symbian devices. These solutions will be available for a broad range of Nokia smartphones starting with the company’s business-optimized range, Nokia Eseries. The two companies will also market these solutions to businesses, carriers and individuals.
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This announcement builds on the existing work Nokia is doing by optimizing access to e-mail and other personal information with Exchange ActiveSync. Next year, Nokia intends to start shipping Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones, followed by other Office applications and related software and services in the future. These will include:
- The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote
- Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile
- Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server
- Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center
Nokia is the leading worldwide provider of smartphones and Microsoft’s own smartphone efforts with Windows Mobile are not sufficient for them to want to shut out Nokia business users in order to maintain an exclusive for their own products.
Nancy Gohring reports that Apple’s iPhone has pulled ahead on Windows Mobile in US smartphone sales:
Even after being on the market for less than half a year, more iPhones sold in the fourth quarter than Windows Mobile phones in the United States, according to research from Canalys.
Canalys researchers estimate that the iPhone had 28 percent of the U.S. converged-device market in the fourth quarter of 2007. Research in Motion, with 41 percent, had the largest share of the market. Windows Mobile phones had a 21 percent share of devices sold in the quarter, falling into third place behind Apple.
Eric Martin and Jeff Kearns are reporting for Bloomberg that the buzz on the Street is that Microsoft would like to buy Garmin, the satellite navigation gadget company.
