(RTTNews) - Finnish telecom company Nokia Corp.
(NOK) on Tuesday announced a collaboration with Google Inc.
(GOOG) to integrate Google's search engine with Nokia's search application. Nokia said that the collaboration builds on the previous cooperation between the two companies. With the partnership, Nokia will make Google search available to its handset users in more than 100 countries around the world, serving people speaking more than 40 languages.
Initially, the integration will be made available in selected markets with the Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6210 Navigator and Nokia 6220 classic models. The cooperation will be extended to additional Nokia handset models in the future.
Under the previous collaboration, Google search is available on Nokia Internet tablets. Last year, Nokia integrated Google's video-sharing platform, YouTube, with its N95 8GB model, the first mobile device to fully support YouTube.
The company said that with Google, Nokia Search will offer fast and easy access to web information on the handset. Nokia Search will also enable direct access with one click from the active standby screen, saving time in searching. Once the information is found, users can act on that information by engaging device assets such as maps, messaging or the browser with just one click.
While commenting on the collaboration, Ilkka Raiskinen, vice-president, software and services at Nokia, said, 'Providing choices for our consumers is an important driver in Nokia's Internet service strategy.'
'This integration allows our consumers the ability to use the innovative search technologies, which have made Google almost synonymous with Internet search,' Raiskinen added.
Nokia already has similar collaborations with Yahoo! Inc.
(YHOO) and Microsoft Corp.
(MSFT) around the world and with Baidu.com, Inc.
(BIDU) in China and Yandex in Russia.
'Adding Google to Nokia Search provides mobile users with fast, relevant and comprehensive search experience that will be familiar to the people who use Google to search the web from their desktop,' said Google's VP of Engineering and Products for Mobile Vic Gundotra.
Meanwhile, the Mountain View, California-based Google is reportedly scheduled to roll out its Android software platform in the second half of 2008. The platform is being put together by a group of more than of 30 companies, including Google, Intel
(INTC), Texas Instruments Inc.
(TXN), Sprint Nextel Corp.
(S), T-Mobile, HTC, Motorola Inc.
(MOT), Samsung
(SSNLF.PK), and Wind River.
The platform will consist of a Linux-based operating system, middleware, and key mobile applications, which are likely to be linked with Google's services, like Gmail and Google Maps.
Separately, Nokia today announced the signing a memorandum of understanding with France Telecom's
(FTE) brand, Orange, to partner on services such as location based services, maps, mobile advertising and gaming.
The companies intend to reach a strategic partnership by mid 2008. The partnership will include co-marketing and sales activities, while building on the collaboration that already exists between the companies, Nokia said.
NOK closed Monday's trade at $36.13, up $0.73, on a volume of 12.78 million shares.
GOOG rose $4.47 on Monday and closed trade at $521.16, on a volume of 5.83 million shares.
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