Nokia will soon update its Symbian Belle platform with a suite of business-based applications called Microsoft Apps. The Microsoft Apps suite is free and features Microsoft PowerPoint and OneNote. Nokia believes the update will “add some serious business productivity tools” for those buying Symbian Belle device or those seeking to upgrade from Symbian Anna to Symbian Belle.
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The Microsoft Apps suite includes Microsoft Lync 2010 Mobile, Microsoft PowerPoint Broadcast, Microsoft OneNote and Microsoft Document Connection. The Apps will include Microsoft OneNote sync with SharePoint update in early 2012. Nokia and Microsoft also plan to include Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint as native applications in the second update. The first batch of the apps is expected to be rolled out by fourth quarter of this year.
Nokia says on its blog that the launch of Microsoft Apps for Symbian shows Nokia has not halted development of its Symbian platform. And more updates will be made in 2012. “We will provide software support to Symbian until at least 2016. Symbian is hugely important to our future ambitions and this latest announcement is just another example of the role that Symbian will play,” says Nokia.
The Microsoft Apps will be delivered via software update over the air or via PC download and will function on the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7, Nokia 700, Nokia 701, Nokia 600 and Nokia Oro. Additionally, the Finnish giant is working with Microsoft to provide mobile device management of Symbian Belle devices through Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012.
Earlier, Nokia had announced its Symbian Belle-based phones namely Nokia 700,701 and 600. All three phones are expected sometime in third quarter of this year. Nokia also talked about making its new operating system compatible with previous generation Symbian^3 and Symbian Anna platforms. Check out our previous coverage on Symbian Belle here.
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