Microsoft Office Apps to come to Symbian Belle.

Another advantage of the Nokia-Microsoft deal about 8 months back promised to bring more “Microsoft related support” to the current and future lines of Symbian phones. The first Symbian related advantage from this deal comes in the form of Microsoft Office apps coming to S^3 devices running Belle (apparently showcased at Nokia World 2011) .

This would be the first time that any of these native Microsoft apps are made available outside an ecosystem belonging to Microsoft (I guess they feel safe giving it out to terminal ecosystems). Furthermore these apps are scheduled to be released FREE by the end of the year, and should run as smooth as any native Symbian Belle app.

Microsoft Apps will be launched via two updates, which will bring full Microsoft Office functionality to Symbian Belle-powered Nokia devices such as theNokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 603; with the first update on the way before the end of the year and the second update coming in the early part of 2012.

In the first update, Microsoft Apps will bring a range of tools to Symbian Belle smartphones, including Microsoft OneNote, for detailed note-taking; Microsoft PowerPoint Broadcast, for showcasing your presentations over the internet; Microsoft Document Connection, for managing files stored in the cloud; and Microsoft Lync 2010 Mobile, for staying connected with clients and colleagues.

The second update will launch for Symbian Belle in the first few months of 2012 and is the one we’re most looking forward to. Bringing native support for Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, the update will allow you to easily create and edit Office files on your Nokia Symbian Belle handset, letting you enjoy full Office functionality on your phone.

Video Via Symbian Tweet (Quite sure this is the first time I see Belle running on an E7 too)

Although it says 700, 701 & 603 I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be available for N8/E7/X7 once they get Belle (But if that were the case you could read it as NOT to expect Belle on your older devices before the end of the year).

Tags: Belle, Microsoft, Nokia, Office, Word

Category: Applications, Nokia, Symbian