Nokia to add Microsoft services to handsets

The phrase, “strange bedfellows,” when applied to the business of making money, may as well be retired.
Nokia Corp. may see Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile as a challenge to its stake in the Symbian operating system, but that doesn’t mean the two parties can’t join forces to benefit both.
Presumably, this theme underlies Nokia’s deal with Microsoft, announced yesterday, to extend a suite of Windows Live services to the handset vendor’s S60 devices in 11 countries on a trial basis.
Nokia device owners of the N73, N80, N95, N76 and N93i in nine European countries, plus Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, can get Windows Live services by visiting http://www.nokia.com/windowslive. The service initially is free, then in select markets consumers will be asked to continue for a recurring monthly fee.
Windows Live enables users to navigate among contacts, e-mail, phone calls, text messaging, imaging and browsing, the companies said, via Windows Live Hotmail, Live Messenger, Live Contacts and Live Spaces. Next year, the availability of the program will be extended to Nokia’s mid-tier Series 40 devices.
Nokia and Microsoft already co-operate, having integrated the latter’s Live Search for Mobile into Nokia’s Mobile Search application.