Nokia makes Good on business phones
The handset maker turns to RIM rival Good Technology to beef up its business-class cell phone lineup.
The handset maker on Tuesday said it is working with the Research In Motion rival to ensure Good's wireless corporate e-mail system operates on Nokia phones using Symbian, an operating system for advanced cell phones. Symbian is distributed by a company of the same name, which is owned by Nokia and several other leading handset makers.
The move is a crucial one for Good Technology, because Nokia is the leading maker of cell phones. By decade's end, a large percentage of cell phones will use either Symbian or Microsoft's Windows operating system, analysts say. For now, the two operating systems can be found on a small number of what are known as "smart phones." The handsets are sophisticated enough to interact with an office computer network and generally designed with business tasks in mind.
Good rival RIM has been working with Symbian for the last 18 months. Representatives for RIM and Nokia did not immediately returns calls seeking comment.
Nokia reached a deal in late 2002 with RIM to make RIM's BlackBerry messaging service available on the leading cell phone maker's devices.
But six months ago, it licensed wireless messaging patents from NTP, following the resolution of the holding company's successful patent infringement case against RIM.