This month saw the launch of Microsoft Communicator Mobile (MCM) on Nokia’s Ovi Store.<\/p>\n
Benefits for Microsoft<\/strong><\/p>\n The first question that springs to mind is “What’s in it for Microsoft?”<\/p>\n Nokia (and Symbian) have the largest chunk of the smartphone market share by quite a margin, with Windows Mobile lagging behind Android devices in fifth place at the end of the first quarter. Giving Nokia a feature they could keep for Windows Mobile seems like it would do further harm to Microsoft’s own smartphone OS.<\/p>\n Press describes MCM as “Office Communicator for Nokia, not just Symbian”.<\/p>\n Strathmore confirmed that it’s currently only available on three Symbian devices however, the Nokia E72, E52, and upcoming E5. “It’s freely downloadable as the licensing leverages the existing Office Communicator license you would own if you had the server.”<\/p>\n “At the core of what Microsoft does is that we develop software,” Press explained. “Deployment of that software as widely as possible is at the top of our agenda. Were we to keep that to ourselves, we would be limiting the potential deployment of our own productivity suite which is really Microsoft’s heart and soul.”<\/p>\n Nokia\/Microsoft mobile devices<\/strong><\/p>\n To the question of whether this means that Nokia will be building Windows Mobile devices in future Strathmore answered: “Nokia has no plans to produce devices featuring the Windows Mobile operating system, and will maintain its strategy of Symbian and MeeGo across the device range.<\/p>\n “The corporate customer places far more priority on the productivity gains offered by any given solution than on the underlying operating system itself, with the proviso that the solution is scalable, manageable, and perhaps most importantly, stable.”<\/p>\n While iPhone and Android devices aren’t usually seen as enterprise smartphones, their year-on-year market share for the first quarter has shown tremendous growth whereas Symbian, Research In Motion, and Windows Mobile have seen a decline according to Gartner Research.<\/p>\n “We acknowledge that there are competitors in our space,” Strathmore added. “Corporate mail is just the ticket to the game. Our answer is targeted at not just one of our competitors but at all of our competitors.”<\/p>\n As Strathmore demonstrated the application on his phone to show off how close to the PC interface it was, he talked about how they basically no longer use office phones. They now use MCM and make VOIP calls when they need to talk to someone.<\/p>\n When questioned about the economy of using mobile broadband even with the latest reduction in rates he stated that many of their international visitors are surprised at how cheap mobile broadband is in South Africa.<\/p>\n