Nokia 8 Smartphone with Dual Rear Cameras in India

HMD Global is all set to launch its Nokia 8 flagship Smartphone of the year in India. The handset maker introduced the device last month at EUR 599 (roughly Rs 45,200).

The Nokia 8 is the fourth 'Nokia' branded Smartphone coming this year after the Nokia 6, 5 and 3. Based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat, Nokia 8 boasts of a 5.3-inch QHD (2560x1440 pixels) resolution screen with 2.5D curved display along with Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The processing power of the Smartphone lies with the flagship octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, which is complimented by 4GB LPDDR4X RAM.

The Nokia 8 comes with dual rear camera setup powered by 13MP sensors each. The camera lens comes from Carl Zeiss. While the first lens shoots colored shots with OIS, the secondary rear camera shoots in monochrome. The primary camera has an aperture of f/2.0 along with PDAF and dual-tone flash. Nokia 8 is also the company's first to come with Nokia OZO audio, which is a 360-degree audio technology for better multimedia experience. The cameras can also capture videos in 4K resolution. At the front, there is a 13MP camera with f/2.0 aperture and display flash.

One of the most highlighted features of the device is 'Bothie' or Dual-Sight mode, which makes use of both front and rear cameras to show both angles on the screen. People can use this feature to livestream on YouTube and Facebook Live as well.

The Nokia 8 features 64GB space (UFS 2.1), which can be bumped up to 256GB using a microSD card. There are no other variants of the handset based on RAM and inbuilt storage.

A 3090mAh non-removable battery backs up the device with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 tech. Also supported are Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 5.0, 4G VoLTE connectivity, NFC, GPS and dual SIM cards.

For added security, Nokia 8 has a fingerprint sensor embedded in the home button at the front below the screen. It is also IP54 certified, which makes it water resistant to a certain level.

Nokia 3310 (2017) launched in India

HMD Global has finally launched the 2017 version of the 'legendary' Nokia 3310 phone in India. The feature phone is priced at Rs 3310 and will be available across top mobile stores starting May 18 in Yellow, Grey, Blue and Red color variants. HMD Global, the company licensed to manufacture Nokia branded Smartphones, introduced the handset along with the Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and the Nokia 3 during the MWC 2017 conference in February.

The all-new Nokia 3310 runs Series 30+ operating system and features a 2.4-inch QVGA (240x320 pixels) display. The dual-SIM handset sports a 2MP camera along with 16MB inbuilt storage. The storage can however, be expanded using a microSD card up to 32GB.

The Nokia 3310 (2017) feature phone is said to come with a 1200mAh battery, which is rated to deliver up to 22 hours talk time and one-month standby time.

For the purpose connectivity, the Nokia 3310 supports two micro SIM cards, Bluetooth v3.0, micro USB and a 3.5mm headphone connector. Weighing 79.6 grams, the feature phone measures only 115.6x51.0x12.8mm.

The original Nokia 3310 of the past came preloaded with 'Snake,' a simple but incredibly addictive game that remains popular even to this day. In fact, it's one of the defining features of the phone. So it's hardly a wonder that the revamped 3310 also comes preloaded with Snake. The game has an upgraded, colorful design that's promises to offer the same addictive game play as its predecessor did.

Microsoft launches Nokia 230 dual SIM

Microsoft has launched a new entry-level phone Nokia 230, which has been priced at Rs 3,869.

The dual SIM phone has a 2.8-inch (320x240p) display and runs Series 30+ OS. Nokia 230 has 16MB RAM and can hold microSD cards of up to 32GB.

It has a 1200mAh replaceable battery and sports 2MP rear camera with LED flash along with a 2MP front facing camera.

Nokia 230 comes with basic connectivity features like Bluetooth 3.0 and microUSB and also has an FM radio and MP3 player.

The phone is now available on Microsoft's official store.

Nokia Launches Metal Lumia 925 Windows Phone

Nokia has launched a lighter, metal model in its Lumia smartphone range. The Lumia 925 is the latest in Nokia's range using Microsoft's Windows Phone software and will be sold for $610 before taxes and subsidies through carriers such as Vodafone and China Mobile.

The phone weighs 139 grams, compared with 185 grams for the earlier 920 model, which some critics had said was too heavy. It also utilizes a new smart camera mode, a photo editing function which Nokia intends to introduce to all Lumia devices. Nokia's Lumia 925 Windows Phone is made of metal and has an 8.7-megapixel camera.

The company has also unveiled the slightly heavier Lumia 928 for the U.S. market recently. It was priced at $99 after a rebate and a two-year deal with Verizon Wireless.

Both the Lumia 925 and 928 are targeted at the high-end, flagship segment, which accounts for 35 to 40 percent of the total global market, said Jo Harlow, Nokia's executive vice president for smart devices.

Nokia's announcement of the Lumia 925 came just days after it unveiled the Asha 501, a $99 handset with a touch-screen.

The Asha 501 is aimed at a growing, middle-class population in emerging markets who like smartphones but can't afford high-end models.

Nokia has also recently started selling a lower-spec Lumia 521, sold as the 520 in other markets, for under $150 at Walmart in the United States.

Nokia 808 PureView offers 41-Megapixel Camera

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia has announced the 808 Pureview, a flagship Symbian device with a 41-megapixel camera.

Yeah, you heard it right, 41 megapixels - Nokia has made this happen by combining Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia-developed pixel over-sampling technology. Although, high megapixel count does not equal quality photos, only time will say how PureView tech works in real life.

Of course, the PureView technology will be coming to upcoming Nokia phones as well, so get used to phones having crazy megapixel numbers in the near future.

The device will retail for 450 euros, hitting the market in May.

Nokia to sell luxury phone line Vertu

As it moves to realign its business to compete with Apple and Android, Nokia is reportedly selling off its luxury phone unit. Although Nokia has not confirmed or denied the rumors, the Financial Times is reports that the Finnish handset maker has hired Goldman Sachs to broker the sale of Vertu.

Nokia launched Vertu in 1998. The company sells phones that cost upward of $5,000 and as much as $315,000, rivaling exotic car brands and fine watches. The phones are made by hand, and often include diamonds and hand-stitched leather.

Functional Art:
Indeed, Nokia doesn't offer specific earnings for Vertu in its quarterly reports. But the Financial Times reports the unit drives between $268 million and $402 million annually. Vertu has flagship boutiques in London, Paris, Milan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York and Las Vegas. The phones are sold in more than 50 countries.

Vertu has relied on exclusivity - along with celebrity endorsements from the likes of songwriter Seal, actress Michelle Yeoh and chef Alain Ducasse - to demonstrate its appeal to the uber rich. One of the key features of Vertu phones is the Concierge, a personal dedicated lifestyle assistance service that's available 24/7 in any language. When users press a dedicated button on the phone, the concierge answers and provides anything from gift ideas to restaurant reservations.

"Vertu not only doesn't follow the trends and it has fairly clunky handsets with very limited functionality. But Vertu has come out with limited editions phones in sets of six," said Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis. "People would buy all six of them at $8,000 or $9,000 a pop as a collection. It's important to note that Vertu phones are a functional piece of art."

Vertu's Fate:
Vertu is catching up with the times, though. The luxury handset maker introduced the Constellation Quest a year ago. Constellation is a QWERTY device that offers the latest business tools. The home screen is minimalist, displaying only the essentials users hand pick. A Vertu design signature analogue clock automatically adjusts for the world traveler.

Vertu boutiques offer Apple-like customer service, helping customers configure their phone settings to suit individual preferences, including e-mail accounts, information feeds and social networking. The phone also comes with a cadre of other services aimed at affluent consumers, like a global digest and language-specific content feeds, as well as ongoing tech support.

It's possible that Vertu can continue being successful just selling devices that only make phone calls because the phones are personal accessory status symbols.

Nokia unveils cheapest mobile phones

Nokia has unveiled two cheap cellphone models inspired by consumer needs in Africa, aiming to strengthen its position against low-cost Asian rivals. Nokia shares have roughly halved this year as the company struggled to keep up with the pace of smartphone development while also losing ground at the cheaper end of the market to Asian brands such as ZTE and G'Five.

The Nokia 101, which comes with slots for two different SIM cards, will be available this quarter for about 25 euros ($35.22), excluding taxes and subsidies, while the Nokia 100 will be available next quarter for about 20 euros.

Nokia's first dual-SIM model reached the market only last quarter, enabling smaller rivals to benefit from growing demand for such models which are increasingly popular in countries such as India, the world's second-biggest and fastest-growing market for mobile phones.

The latest models mark the fifth duo-Sim models for Nokia in the last three months and were inspired by the needs of consumers in countries such as Kenya, where mobile phone penetration is more than 50 percent.

Executives at the firm told a media launch in the Kenyan capital that Africa, with its 1 billion people who are mostly young, is a key strategic area.

Mary McDowell, executive vice president for mobile phones, said Nokia's cheap models would help it sidestep any risks from economic problems, as consumers increasingly rely on their mobile phones to grow their businesses.

McDowell expressed confidence in the firm's product strategy, saying Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility was a cause for optimism.

"The Google Motorola announcement really validates our strategy to go with the windows phone as the smart phone platform," she said, adding that Nokia's S40 phones, designed to take on cheaper smart phones, were key to the strategy.

Nokia unveils new smartphone N9

Finnish cellphone maker Nokia has unveiled its N9 smartphone in Singapore, its only bet on the MeeGo platform.

The commercial launch will be later this year, said CEO Stephen Elop. Nokia dumped plans to use MeeGo in its future smartphones when in February it picked Microsoft's Windows Phone as its future software choice, but it decided to unveil one of the models it was working on before closing the business line.

The N9 model, Nokia's first and last to use MeeGo, comes with a large touch screen and is available in black, cyan and magenta. The MeeGo platform - a newcomer in the market dominated by Google and Apple - was born in February 2010 when Nokia and Intel unveiled a merger of Nokia's Linux Maemo software platform with Intel's Moblin, which is also based on Linux open-source software.

After Nokia pulled back from the project four months ago other vendors have become more interested in the technology as Nokia's dominant role in the project had held back others from adopting it.

Nokia's mobile market share down to 25%

Nokia's share of the mobile phone market dropped to 25 percent in the first quarter of 2011, the lowest for 14 years, down from 30.6 percent at the same time last year, said technology research group Gartner.

"Its market share declined 5.5 percentage points year-on-year, and its share has reached its lowest since 1997," Gartner said in a study.

Nokia had released its own figures on April 21 putting first-quarter market share at 29 percent, down from 33 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

Earlier this year, the company announced a radical restructuring to overcome increasingly fierce competition in the smartphone market.

The Finnish company, which had a global market share of 40 percent as late as 2008, nonetheless remains the mobile industry leader.

It still ranking well ahead of second-place Samsung, which holds 16 percent, followed by LG in third with 5.6 percent, Apple in fourth with 3.9 percent and RIM with 3.0 percent.

Nokia announced in February that it expected a "period of uncertainty" as it phased out its Symbian platform in favour of a tie-in with Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system for its smartphones.

But Gartner said the Finnish company was still taking a beating in the rapidly growing smartphone sector, pointing out that "Android and Apple's iOS continued to dominate the smartphone operating system wars."

"Smartphones accounted for 23.6 percent of overall sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85 percent year-on-year," said Roberta Cozza, Gartner's principal research analyst.

Worldwide mobile phone devices sales meanwhile increased by 19 percent year-on-year, according to Gartner's data, totalling 427.8 million units sold in the first quarter.

The research group said it expected the total number of mobile phone sold worldwide this year to tick in at nearly 1.8 billion units.

Nokia to slash 7000 jobs worldwide

Nokia Corp. said it will slash 7,000 jobs worldwide, through both layoffs and outsourcing, as it strives to cut costs and catch up with its top rivals in the smartphone market.

Most of the 4,000 layoffs, due by the end of 2012, will be in Denmark, Finland and Britain. It also plans to transfer 3,000 workers in China, Finland, India, Britain and the United States to Accenture PLC as it outsources Symbian platform operations to the global management-consulting firm, in a major shift of strategy.

The announcements came as the world's top cellphone maker seeks to cut operating expenses by euro1 billion ($1.5 billion) by 2013 amid fierce competition that has seen its market share plunge and its profits plummet.

Markets had been eagerly expecting signals about company policy from Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop since he took over in September and even more so since the Feb. 11 announcement that Nokia and Microsoft Corp. were teaming up to challenge rivals such as Research in Motion, Apple Inc. and Google.

The announcements came as Nokia, which has 13,000 employees in Finland but indirectly provides work for more than 20,000 people, had called workers for company briefings in several cities.

Elop said that none of the employees will lose their jobs this year, and that the personnel transfers would be made "over time."

Recently, Nokia has faced stiff competition from Research in Motion's Blackberry, Apple's iPhone and Google's Android at the top end of the market, as well as feeling the pinch from numerous Asian handset makers that produce cheaper phones in emerging markets.

It has been the world's largest handset maker since 1998, selling 432 million devices last year - more than its three closest rivals combined. But its market share continues to fall, to 29 percent in this year's first quarter - its lowest level since the late 1990s.

Even more damaging has been Nokia's inability to meet the challenges of new smartphones, a field where it used to be the leading innovator.

Today, the iPhone has set the standard for smartphones while BlackBerrys have become the favorite of the corporate set. And on the software front, Android has emerged as the top choice for phone makers that want to challenge the iPhone.

According to industry experts, Nokia's future depends a lot on the success of its partnership with Microsoft and the type of phone they launch, expected late this year or in 2012.

The Espoo-based company, near Helsinki, employs 132,500 people - 7 percent more than a year ago.

Nokia unveils new models of E6 and X7

The world's largest phone maker by volume, Nokia, has unveiled two new smartphone models running on a new version of its Symbian software platform. The new models, the E6 and the X7, will go on sale for 340 euros ($491.6) and 380 euros respectively excluding subsidies and taxes, later this quarter. In February, Nokia's new chief executive Stephen Elop dumped Symbian software - which lost most of its lead on the smartphone market last year - saying the company would instead use Microsoft Corp's unproven software as its primary platform. Elop compared Symbian to a burning platform in a widely leaked internal memo, saying it was not good enough for Nokia's future. Nokia unveiled a new version of Symbian software, with new icons, improved text input, faster Internet browsing and a refreshed Ovi Maps application. "Several Nokia executives have attempted to walk back from Elop's February comments and limit the damage he did to Symbian products. It's just a bit too late to put Humpty Dumpty back together. Developers are bailing out in droves," said Tero Kuittinen, analyst at MKM Partners.

Nokia to use Symbian and Windows together

Nokia has said it will continue to sell smartphones using its legacy Symbian software for a long time after its first phones using Microsoft's Windows go on sale. Symbian is due to be replaced by Microsoft's Windows Phone over the coming two years under a plan announced in February, raising concerns Nokia could drop Symbian phones - which have lost market share, but generate strong profits - too early. "We will be selling Symbian-devices long after Windows Phone devices from Nokia have already started to appear," said Purnima Kochikar, head of developer relations at Nokia. Nokia has promised to introduce its first models using Windows Phone platform at the latest in 2012. Nokia didn't specify how long it would continue to offer Symbian. Earlier this week research firm Ovum forecast that Symbian phones will continue on some markets into 2016. Kochikar said coming Symbian models would focus on strong integration of services, as well as have faster processors than so far in the Symbian product line. "Over the past weeks we have been evaluating our Symbian roadmap and now feel confident we will have a strong portfolio of new products during our transition period - i.e. 2011 and 2012," Kochikar said. "They will also include improvements in hardware performance such as GHz+ processing capabilities and faster graphics speeds," she said. Nokia's current top models, the N8 and the E7, use 680 MHz processors, while rivals top models already use 1 GHz and faster processors.

Nokia partners with Microsoft to rival Apple and Google

Technology titans Nokia and Microsoft are combining forces to create smart phones that might challenge rivals like Apple and Google and revive their own fortunes in a market they have struggled to keep up with.

Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of mobile phones, said Friday it plans to use Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Phone software as the main platform for its smart phones in an effort to pull market share away from Apple's iPhone and Android, Google's software for phones and tablets.

Analysts said the deal was a bigger win for Microsoft than Nokia, whose CEO Stephen Elop in a leaked memo this week compared his company to a burning oil platform with "more than one explosion ... fueling a blazing fire around us."

Moving increasingly to providing services for phone users, Nokia and Microsoft "will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivaled global reach and scale," Elop said in a statement.

Nokia said it will drive the future of Windows Phone, "innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader."

But Nokia warned that the new strategy would bring "significant uncertainties" and said it expects margins to be hit by strong competition from rivals.

Neil Mawston of London-based Strategy Analytics said Microsoft was the big winner in the partnership, by teaming up with the biggest mobile hardware vendor in the world.

"In terms of expanding their distribution reach, this is a huge win for Microsoft," he said.

For Nokia the deal leaves uncertainty about what will happen to its current Symbian operating platform. Mawston said he expects it to be phased out within two years and "completely, or at least mostly, replaced by Windows Phone."

Although Nokia still is the mobile industry's No. 1, it has suffered from plummeting market share, dropping from a high of 41 percent in 2008 to 31 percent in the last quarter of 2010.

It has also lost its innovative edge in the fiercely competitive top-end sector and is virtually invisible - with a 3 percent share - in the world's largest smart phone market, North America.

Apples' iPhone has set the standard for today's smart phones and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerrys have become the favorite of the corporate set. More recently, Google Inc.'s Android software has emerged as the choice for phone makers that want to challenge the iPhone.

"Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience," Elop said.

Nokia, which claims 1.3 billion daily users of its devices, said it hopes the "broad, strategic partnership" with Microsoft will lead to capturing the next billion users to join the Internet in developing growth markets.

The company said that it will also announce new leadership team and organizational structure "with a clear focus on speed, results and accountability."

"Nokia is at a critical juncture, where significant change is necessary and inevitable in our journey forward," Elop said, adding that the company was aiming at "regaining our smart phone leadership, reinforcing our mobile device platform and realizing our investments in the future."

Jyrki Ali-Yrkko, from the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, described Nokia's cooperation with Microsoft as "surprising."

"The strengths will be in Microsoft's strong position in various corporate solutions and server solutions, but its weakness is that Microsoft perhaps doesn't have a broad, user-oriented group of developers like those around Android or Apple," Ali-Yrkko said.

Knowing Nokia C7

Knowing Nokia C7

Nokia N8 Release Dates Announced

Nokia N8 Release Dates Announced

Nokia launches three cheaper smart phones

The world's top cellphone maker Nokia Corp has launched three less-expensive smart phones, including its first model expected to sell for under euro100 ($135) - in a strong move to grab new customers in emerging markets.

The world's largest mobile phone maker said it wants "to put better messaging and social networking tools in the hands of more people around the world at affordable prices."

The new Nokia C3, Nokia E5 and Nokia C6 handsets have full QWERTY keyboards, enable instant messaging and give access to e-mails. Their expected selling prices respectively are euro90, euro180 and euro220 before taxes and subsidies.

The handsets will be available during the second and third quarters of this year.

"Nokia's strategic focus is clearly on emerging markets now and taking higher feature devices to the masses and these three devices do that quite nicely," said Neil Mawston, analyst at Strategy Analytics in London.

Finland-based Nokia, which is increasingly turning to providing applications and services for handset users, said in December it will focus on the smart phone sector, including providing cheaper handsets in emerging markets.

Despite strong competition from Blackberry and iPhone, Nokia's market share in smart phones grew from 35 percent to 40 percent in the last quarter of 2009.

The cheapest of the new models, the C3, with an estimated price tag of euro90, includes a two megapixel camera, a 2.4 inch screen and will include access to Nokia's Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat that allow first-time users to set up e-mail and chat accounts straight from the device without the need for a computer.

It has WiFi connectivity and support for up to an 8GB memory card, allowing users to update their status and share pictures on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

"The C3 stands out the most at a very competitive price with a very effective feature set that goes squarely after the lower-tier mass market in India, Africa, China," Mawston said. "It's going to be one of their star devices over the next two quarters."

The Nokia C6, with an estimated price of euro220, has a 3.2-inch touch screen with full slide-out keyboard and a five megapixel camera featuring autofocus and flash.

The E5, expected to sell for some euro180, is targeted at corporate customers with numerous productivity applications available in Nokia's Ovi Store. It has direct access to over 90 percent of the world's corporate e-mails through Mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler.

Nokia brings mobile music to China

Top mobile phone maker Nokia brought its music download service to the key Chinese market and said it would also launch the service, which competes with Apple's iTunes, in India.

"Globally, we have expanded the reach of our music service to 30 markets in just 18 months," Liz Schimel, global head of music at the Finnish company said in a statement.

China is the world's biggest cellphone market and analysts said Nokia's "Comes with Music" service launch there was important but added the service had seen slow pickup elsewhere and remained far behing Apple's iTunes in popularity.

"Comes with Music has not been a success in any market. Volumes have been small," said Martti Larjo, an analyst with Nordea Markets.

Nokia said buyers of eight of its phone models across China would get "unlimited music downloads" of song catalogues from global lables Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music, and local independent labels, including Huayi Brothers Media Group and Taihe Rye.

The phone models included in the service have a starting retail price of 140 euros (186 dollars), excluding local taxes and subsidies, Nokia said, adding local artists featured prominently in the Chinese version of the service.

Nokia develops self-charging cellphone

Experts have come up with a cellphone that can recharge its own battery by harvesting energy from the owner's motion.

The self-charging handset by Nokia, who has already filed for a US patent, was predicted to work with heavier components, such as the radio transmitter circuit and battery, supported on a sturdy frame.

According to a report by New Scientist, “The frame apparently could shift along two sets of rails, allowing it travel up and down and side to side”.

Each rail apparently hosted strips of piezoelectric crystals at its end, capable of generating a current when compressed by the frame such that motion, by the user or the movement of the phone, generates electricity.

That in turn charged a capacitor and subsequently the battery, boosting the charge.

Nokia to Roll out Micro Finance for Mobile Phones

Nokia plans to roll out a micro financing program for mobile phones across 12 states in India.

The company has completed a pilot of this program across 2,500 villages in the rural areas of the Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states of India. Nokia tied up for the pilot with a micro finance institution to offer mobile handsets on installments of 100 Indian rupees (US$2) a week for 25 weeks.

The company said in a statement that it expects that the benefits of mobility will reach 500 million people in the country by next year.

The penetration of mobile phones in rural India is still very low at 13 percent, and much of the growth in mobile telephony will be in non-urban markets, the company said.

Its objective is to lower access barriers as well as total cost of ownership in these markets, it added.

Nokia did not name its micro finance partner.

The mobile phone giant is also launching Nokia Life Tools commercially in the country this year, which includes a range of agriculture information and education services targeted at non-urban consumers. The service was tested in Maharashtra state.

India added 12 million mobile subscribers in June, the latest month for which data is available, taking the total number of subscribers to 427 million, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Mobile service operators and handset makers are targeting India's rural market as the next big opportunity. The rural market is however low margin and geographically dispersed.

Data from TRAI for the first quarter of this year showed declining ARPU (average revenue per user) and utilization of mobile phones by consumers, across service providers, reflecting the economic slowdown and expansion of services in rural markets.

Microsoft Nokia alliance to rival RIM

Microsoft Corp and Nokia announced an alliance to bring business software to smartphones and counter the dominance of Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry.

The alliance between the world's largest software company and cell phone maker means the latest versions of Microsoft's Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and messaging, will be available on a range of Nokia cell phones, which make up 45 percent of the global smartphone market.

The two companies, at one time fierce rivals in the mobile telecommunications business, expect to offer Nokia phones running Office sometime next year.

"This is giving some of our competitors - let's spell it out, RIM - a run for their money," said Nokia Executive Vice President Robert Andersson, in a telephone interview. "I don't think BlackBerry has seen the kind of competition we can provide them now."

Research in Motion's BlackBerry created the market for mobile e-mail, and its dominant position in the corporate sector, especially in North America, has protected it from Nokia's attempts to crack the market in recent years.

"RIM should be reasonably safe in the near-term because Nokia's presence in the U.S. is relatively small. Partnering more closely with Microsoft will help to raise Nokia's profile in the U.S." said Neil Mawston from research firm Strategy Analytics.

The alliance also aims to counter Google Inc's recent move into free online software, targeted at Microsoft's business customers, and the growing popularity of Apple Inc's iPhone device.

"It's clear that Nokia and Microsoft are both facing competitive challenges, most notably from Google. It makes sense for these two companies to work together to see if they can pool their competitive strengths to try and counter some of this pressure", said John Jackson, an analyst at wireless research firm CCS Insight.

The alliance means Microsoft's new Office suite of applications could be available to a much wider audience than the users of Windows Mobile phones, which make up 9 percent of the smartphone market.

"We see this as a great opportunity to deliver Office Mobile to 200 million Nokia smartphone customers," said Takeshi Numoto, an executive at Microsoft's Office business.

Analysts said Microsoft is clearly looking at the largest possible audience with the Nokia deal.