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Microsoft, Nokia Team To Add Mobile Office Apps To Phones
CWmike writes "On the same day a court banned sales of Microsoft Office for PCs, Microsoft and Nokia said they are working together to put Microsoft Office on Nokia handsets. It's a move that should give Microsoft leverage against Google and others that are attacking its Office business with free or low-priced Web apps. The aim of the deal is to bring an application called Microsoft Office Mobile to Nokia's Symbian devices, they said. They will also do the same for other Microsoft communications, collaboration and device-management software. The applications will be available first on Nokia's E-series phones, but eventually will extend to other Nokia handsets. The Microsoft-Nokia deal brings two competitors together, but could spell the end of Windows Mobile. Gartner analyst Nick Jones said he is becoming 'more concerned' about the future for Windows Mobile and added in a blog today that Windows Mobile 7 could be Microsoft's last update of the product."
... the Death of MS Word
all future phones will use teleboot in order to get into the cloud
Should turn out to be a nice story of two brothers: Cain and Abel.
Can anyone even imagine creating a serious document on any cellphone? That would be hellish.
Seriously, someone explain to me why this is such a big deal? The announcement was made a few days ago that a joint announcement was forthcoming, and this is all they have? I seriously don't get it. I used to own a Nokia Communicator 9300i back in the day that was fully able to edit word and excel documents. Ok, not the most complicated ones, but the apps got the job done pretty well. This was at least 3 years ago by now.
Whooptiedoo! We can now edit files on the go! (sound familiar?)
What am I missing here?
Veni, Vidi, Velcro!
"Hi! I'm Crappy, your personal handset buddy. I noticed you pressed a number on your phone keypad. It looks like you're trying to make a call. Would you like me to continue to interfere with this even though you almost certainly know what you want to do?".
I sure wouldn't make a strategic move that hinges on Symbian coming out on top of the mobile OS market.
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
What an idiotic statement. MS doesn't give up markets that easily (unfortunately). They'll have a windows mobile OS if they have to start building their own phones to sell it.
Caveat Utilitor
Considering that ActiveSync is already the number one mail solution in Nokia (E-series) devices and they have for a long time included office viewers, I don't really thinks this is anything that major. Nokia recognises that Office & Exchange are a necessity for their business customers and want to support that. Microsoft on the other hand would bring Office to Android if that would further their Office-business. If anything, Nokia is trying to get advantage over iPhone as a corporate phone.
Uh? Who in their right mind would even want to use office on a mobile phone? The UI is bad as it is on a full-size PC.
Seriously, a lot of these "tools" are just crap for middle management that for some reason feels empowered when they can do the secretaries job, just worse.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
How are they ever going to fit the Ribbon on a c. 2" screen?
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
A day late, and dollar short. M$ has been reactionary for a while now. They don't innovate shit anymore.
The only use for this that I could envision is providing read-only access to a Office files (I know I wouldn't have the patience to write Office docs on my phone...writing an email is bad enough). In that case, can't the iPhone already do this?
According to this Link, the claim is that they want to battle Balckberry's RIM.
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ridiculous. the only thing that's good for is to carry a document into a meeting with. last I heard, any laptop or tablet with a wi-fi card will do the job, and plug into the projector or printer, too.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
This sounds like they had done something innovative in the past. If you really believe that, than please enlighten me of what that might have been. I'm dying to know.
Copying from others, repackaging it in a user friendly manner and subversively bringing OEM's to install it on all new machines does not count. I mean something technical in their core business.
You will need a new Nokia with 10,000 buttons on it to use all the crap MS office has (that 99.9% of people don't use).
Let alone 16GB of memory for a 'hello darling, I will home soon' txt msg.
Um... ok, but my Nokia already has office apps from several different vendors.
Has for years in fact, even reads & writes the Microsoft Office (tm)(r)(c) documents.
Not sure what gap this is supposed to fill.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Because I was just reading about Symbian being cancelled.
If you want/need to type a Word doc or Excel spreadsheet on your damn phone then put down the phone, quit the ridiculous job that is consuming your life, and go enjoy life. A tiny screen and keyboard is no way to go through life, son.
I guess I am throwing in the towel on my geek cred here, but seriously as many IT jobs as I've had and this has never been a need (or want).
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Chinese input is done using pinyin, which *gasp* uses a tradational keyboard. It's hilariously faster to type Chinese using pinyin input vs. hand writing. I mean sickengly, stupidly, mind boggingly faster to the point that it's not even negotiable: anyone who claims otherwise is lying or doesn't know what they're talking about (e.g. the above poster).
Thanks to iPhone, Windows Mobile now has fans too. You know, iPhone policies, app store made both Symbian and Windows Mobile some kind of "freedom OS".
I haven't heard anything bad about Windows Mobile for a long time and it is a first in Windows operating systems. No security scandal happened too.
Don't tell me that "analyst" at Garner doesn't have a clue about Silverlight coming to Nokia phones. It was announced year or more ago. Not Moonlight, the Silverlight.
With Office announcement and the fact that Silverlight beginning to tie to .NET platform, it seems .NET itself is coming to Symbian. Of course, it doesn't have to be visible to end user or even other developers. I wonder if MS finally understood what "framework" , "runtime" means and where World is heading to?
Well, you forgot to tell that any bluetooth keyboard (Apple preferred for fun) can be "plugged" to Nokia smart phones to use as input, adding more to shock.
Oh (for iPhone users), no hack needed. Nokia advertises the driver/app themselves and gives free.
One of the issues with Nokia's customers is: They demand official, Microsoft solution if they are Windows based.
I remember reading on The Register that Nokia stated they MAY release a Windows Mobile smart phone and it should have no effect on their future with Symbian. The main reason was that.
Customer runs exchange server, ms office, win 2k03 server and goes to buy Asus Windows Mobile (like thousands of them) while Nokia is superior and could even run/sync better. Why? Because Asus has Windows Mobile OS.
Same deal with Blackberry you know. All Nokia and SE pro phones have perfect blackberry support, even coming free and yet they go and buy that weird hardware.
Unfortunately, the ribbon takes up the whole screen, and the only button on it is "quit".
Microsoft has been cannibalizing their own business for profits. They don't have the ability to innovate and they have been resorting to forcing upgrades on their customers to maintain revenue.
they could have taken over business software
Slashdot and reality are perilously close to a permanent disconnect:
"SharePoint is saving Microsoft's Office business even as it paves the way for a new era of Microsoft lock-in," said Matt Asay, an executive at Alfresco, which makes an open-source content management system. "It is simultaneously the most interesting and dangerous Microsoft technology, and has largely caught its competitors napping." Microsoft's SharePoint Thrives in the Recession, Slow down, cowboy
With the next version of Office, Microsoft is trying to expand* its desktop hold on the productivity market into one that spans the PC, Web, and phone, and the Nokia deal is seen as a significant move in that last category.
The software maker has already said that, with the next version of Office, it plans to offer browser-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. Those programs will be able to run inside Safari and Firefox in addition to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. That means that Office, for the first time, will run on Linux-based machines.
Although Nokia and Microsoft have long been rivals in the phone business, the two have also struck deals at times. Nokia already has a license that allows its phones to connect to Exchange Servers using Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol. In 2007, Microsoft also struck a deal with Nokia to have Windows Live services run on the Finnish company's phones. Microsoft, Nokia plan mobile Office deal
*-emphasis added.
abiword actually runs great on maemo
Should I buy the new phone? I need a new mobile device, to make my life complete. I feel like an outsider: my smartphone fell apart after years of un-gentleness and now I'm back to using my old T9. This phone doesn't have the mobile Office apps I never use -- so should I upgrade? I guess I should wait for the Microsoft/Nokia arrangement to manifest itself in the stores first. I guess I'll spend my time worrying about how far behind the Hiptop generation I'm falling...Oh, woe is I!
Harold