Microsoft to support Symbian Belle with its business and productivity apps

Nokia and Microsoft will now ship serious productivity and business apps to Symbian Belle smartphones by the end of year 2011. The updates will be sent out to the devices via in-device Software Update app. As yet informed, “Microsoft Apps” will be the name of the update which will contains all these following apps.

• Microsoft® Lync™ 2010 Mobile – for cost efficient IM, presence, audio and web meetings on-the-go.
• Microsoft® PowerPoint® Broadcast – quick broadcast of presentations directly from PC to mobile.
• Microsoft® OneNote™ – rich note taking with images. Syncs with Microsoft® SkyDrive®.
• Microsoft® Document Connection – single view to documents stored on mobile, including email attachments as well as documents on Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 sites.

Additionally a later update to OneNote will arrive on early 2012 which will add.

• Microsoft OneNote sync with SharePoint (in addition to SkyDrive)

Another update will add Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint as native applications to Symbian (Belle) as said by the Press Release from Nokia.

The updates will be shipped to the devices with Symbian Anna once upgraded to Symbian Belle as well as to the new devices. with Symbian Belle.

Additionally, Nokia is working with Microsoft to provide mobile device management of Symbian Belle devices through Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2012.

This is what recently was announced by Nokia in a press release with some exclamatory remarks  by Purnima Kochikar, VP Business Mobility.

“Work is an important part of personal lifestyle, aspiration and achievement for many people around the world,” said Purnima Kochikar, VP business mobility, Nokia. “Just as Symbian Belle extends the everyday possibilities for social interaction, we wanted to extend the possibilities to manage personal worklife for individuals and employers. Microsoft Apps is another example of Nokia’s ongoing commitment to continue delivering value and innovation to Symbian users.”

Later by Nokia Conversations.

These updates are yet another confirmation that Nokia has not done making investments and introducing innovation into the Symbian platform. There will be more updates in 2012 and more devices to come and Nokia has already said, 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…

We all know the fact that for how long Symbian is going to get these apps and updates. Four years from now until it’s 2016, the year when the support for Symbian will be discontinued and no new things or updates will be provided on Symbian as well as no new Symbian devices will be manufactured. But until then we hope these cool, important and productive apps and updates will keep happening to arrive on your Symbian smartphones.

[via Nokia Conversations, Nokia Press Release]