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Microsoft seeks better ties with Nokia

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CIOL Bureau
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John Acher

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HELSINKI: Microsoft Corp. said on Monday that it would welcome closer ties

with mobile phone maker Nokia, looking to pair its strength in software with the

Finnish group's expertise in wireless technology. "From a Microsoft

perspective... we would love to have an even deeper partnership with

Nokia," chief executive Steve Ballmer said in an interview with Finnish

national broadcaster YLE news.

"We would like in the future to have even closer cooperation around

software both for devices as well as the way PCs work with wireless

infrastructure," he said on a brief visit to Helsinki to promote

Microsoft's new Office XP software. While Nokia welcomed Ballmer's gesture, it

said it would stick by plans to use rival Symbian's operating system, created by

Britain's Psion, to power its smartphones, but was willing to work together for

more technological compatibility.

Ballmer's comments came at a time when Microsoft is trying to grab a piece of

the growing wireless software market with its Pocket PC operating system, as

mobile phones increasingly converge with handheld personal computers. Nokia's

spokesman Lauri Kivinen said he was not aware of any meetings between Nokia

officials and Ballmer during his visit, but he said the groups had talked in the

past.

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"We have had a continuous round of meetings and discussions with

Microsoft over the years, so the connection certainly is there," Kivinen

told Reuters. In recent years, talk of a link-up between the two companies has

occasionally surfaced but proved groundless.

Open, compatible technology wanted



Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, said it would welcome closer
cooperation to ensure wireless devices and software worked seamlessly together.

"Closer collaboration is welcomed if common terms can be found and I see

good possibilities to work together when it comes to common, open

standards," Kivnen said.

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He said this was already happening, such as with Nokia's pocket-size

colour-screen 9210 Communicator, which is due to hit the shelves this month and

runs on the Symbian operating system but also works with Microsoft Windows-based

programs.

But Kivinen stressed that Nokia had chosen Symbian as its operating system

for its mobile devices. Symbian's EPOC is a competitor to Microsoft's Stinger

system due for release late this year. "When it comes to the operating

system we have made the choice to use the Symbian system for our

smartphones," he said.

Symbian is to supply smartphone software to the world's five largest handset

makers - Nokia, US Motorola, Germany's Siemens, Sweden's Ericsson and Japan's

Matsushita - which together account for about 65 per cent of global cellphone

sales.

Kivinen declined to say if Nokia would in the future adopt Microsoft's mobile

Internet brower already accepted by Ericsson and Japan's Mitsubishi Corp.

"In the future several browsers will be used in wireless products," he

said.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.

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