Nokia plays down Facebook talk

BARCELONA, SPAIN:  Mobile phone maker Nokia sees social networking site Facebook as only one of many partners for its Ovi online software store, and said it had seen signs of a pickup in the struggling mobile gaming market.

"In general I think you will see lot more cooperation between Nokia and a number of developers," Niklas Savander, executive vice president for services, told Reuters in an interview from the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

"Facebook is a good example of a company that has traction in the market ... (but) I wouldn't put too much drama into this versus any other partnership right now," he said.

Some media reports have speculated that Nokia and Facebook would announce a cooperation deal at the trade fair. On Monday, Facebook was listed among the partners for Nokia's Ovi software store along with other companies including rival social networking site MySpace.

Savander also said he saw signs of a pickup in the struggling mobile games market, but did not elaborate.

On Nokia's music bundling phone push, called "comes with music", Savander said it was still too early to pass judgment.

"I think we are too early ... to predict success or failure for (Comes with Music)," he said. "We are now ... going live in Singapore and many other markets, and once we see multiple markets, multiple handsets we'll see the true value."