My enemy's enemy = My Friend

Well, it appears this is the approach that Microsoft is taking towards RIM by partnering with Nokia.

Microsoft and Nokia officially announced an agreement yesterday to partner in their fight against Blackberry. Aa part of the agreement, Microsoft will start offering their Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications (collaboration and device management software) to Nokia’s Symbian devices. These solutions will be made available for Nokia ESeries.

Microsoft says that they are doing this as a part of their strategy to provide the best productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser. Nokia is looking at this from the perspecitve of providing a seamless and integrated productivity experience on a mobile device and they feel that Microsoft is an ideal partner for this.

Will they really be able to outbeat RIM which accounted for 34% of smartphone sales in the stores of the largest US wireless service providers in July 09? Some people say they will, some people dont feel that way at all. Well, it will succeed only if people are today backing off from buying Nokia due to lack of these programs/functionality. Highly unlikely, huh?

This also brings up another question about Microsoft's own baby - Windows Mobile... What is happening there ???