back to article MS Office coming for Symbian

The Microsoft/Nokia tie-up just got weirder, if that's possible, with the launch of Office for Symbian, developed by Microsoft. Yes, you read that right. Office, the productivity suite that is enmeshed in Microsoft's mobile strategy, now runs on Symbian. Nokia has shunted Symbian to Accenture, to which it has outsourced future …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    typical el reg arrogance

    instead of embracing the fact that the only native european tech get some support from a non-european corporation, they sneer at it. No wonder, the brits lost virtually all their native technology. The arrogant snobs!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: typical el reg arrogance

      What are you wittering on about?

      Only native European Tech? Has the rest of the continent been stolen whilst I was asleep?

      Guess nobody told ARM, the British Tech company. If you've not heard of them then may I suggest you google, grow up and promise to provide a better level of trolling in future.

      1. Manu T

        Re: typical el reg arrogance

        "If you've not heard of them then may I suggest you google, grow up and promise to provide a better level of trolling in future."

        Actually I'm more aware of ARM than you are since I was once one of most avid supporters of Acorn Computers ltd RISC OS systems in my area (you know that's the company that INVENTED that ARM cpu). So I was there from the beginning. And I damn well know how difficult it was in those early days when most o/t press was against them. The fact is that the only reason ARM still survives is because of their non-European alliances and sheer good luck. It definitely wasn't because of El Reg's support of ARM-devices. Unless they come with US originated OS's.

        Also I said "virtually all" this is the same as "almost all".

        IMHO UK residents and companies should favor UK tech not sneering at it or give demeaning remarks. Or is objectivity and respect only privileged for US originated products?

  2. Gunda

    Well, Nokia did manage another first. An undead OS. The OS that has been killed but refuses to die. I am sure Hollywood can make another zombie movie out of this.

  3. Bad Beaver
    Thumb Down

    For journalists ...

    You have a slight tendency not to "get it". AFAIK, Symbian is supported untill 2016. This is 2012. See the difference? Nokias biggest mistake after not going for MeeGo was to communicate Symbians EOL in the way it was done. Fearful shrieks of the weak ensued and only make life harder for the huge (check the numbers) established base of Symbian users that use this platform every day to get some real world work done.

  4. Davidoff
    FAIL

    As recently revealed by El Reg

    Should read "as recently made up by El Reg". Aside from the obvious ignorant attitude against Symbian which the article shows, it's a bit silly to cite an article which is full of errors (hint: ST Ericsson does not make any chipsets for Symbian handsets), something which the author also has been critized for regularly.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: As recently revealed by El Reg

      ST-Ericsson were certainly developing a chipset for Symbian but that phone (and the whole family) was cancelled back in January after being approx 2 years in development.

      One inaccuracy is that Nokia didn't dump Symbian on Accenture; Nokia still owns the code but Accenture owns the engineers. Recently some of the engineers got offered Voluntary Redundancy and there was Compulsory Redundancy announced some weeks ago so it's really not clear who'll be skilled enough to do the maintenance until 2016... probably some cheap grads in Banglore/Beijing. It's certainly won't be London.

      As for Office on your phone... Lync eats your battery, just turn it off unless you really need it.

  5. Christian Berger

    The N900 can run OpenOffice

    http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=33228

    I still fail to see what Office Software is supposed to be useful for. So far the main use I got was spreadsheet software which we used to draw up "architectural" plans in the archive I used to work. With it you can easily show the rectangular structure of the rooms and note where which cabinet was. (important in an archive!)

    Other than that, if you want text on paper, use LaTeX. It works and is way less hassle than any Office package.

    1. Davidoff

      I still fail to see what Office Software is supposed to be useful for

      Well, the main reason is probably to be able to read the odd document. You may even decide to take your cellphone instead your laptop to hold a presentation.

      Office for Symbian is good news as currently most newer Symbian devices come with QuickOffice which is a useless pile of ****.

      1. MacroRodent
        Boffin

        Re: I still fail to see what Office Software is supposed to be useful for

        > Well, the main reason is probably to be able to read the odd document.

        Funnily, for some "odd documents" OpenOffice (or LibreOffice) actually works better than MS Office. I have encountered several old Word files (and even one new one) that MS Office 2007 refused to read, but OpenOffice did. Maybe not with exactly the same layout as the original Word would have used, but at least I got the text out, intact.

        1. JDX Gold badge

          Re: I still fail to see what Office Software is supposed to be useful for

          A tolerable replacement for Office - maybe. Better than Office - you gotta be kidding.

        2. Davidoff
          WTF?

          Funnily, for some "odd documents" OpenOffice (or LibreOffice) actually works better than MS Office.

          And where can I find this OpenOffice (or LibreOffice) that runs on Symbian?

    2. Semaj
      FAIL

      Re: The N900 can run OpenOffice

      You use a spreadsheet program to make floor plans ... how strange. Still, at least it's not Powerpoint I guess.

      Seriously though - have you tried Visio? It's kind of one of the things it is made for and does rather well.

  6. auburnman
    Mushroom

    Holy crap

    Symbian must still have some life in it if they have supporters this vitriolic. It's almost like I wandered into a Fandroid/iDrone slanging match.

    1. Davidoff
      Holmes

      Symbian must still have some life in it if they have supporters this vitriolic.

      Don't forget that only until recently Symbian was the dominating global smartphone platform, and has been for a decade. It may surprise you but things like proper multitasking and copy'n'paste have been in Symbian long before even the first versions of Andoid, iOS or WP7 appeared on the scene.

      And even today some still prefer to use a smartphone with a reliable OS that has been developed with low ressource usage in mind and which doesn't spy on its owner and also outlasts any of the other smartphones in battery runtime for the price of not having the choice of a few hundred fart apps.

  7. Miek
    Linux

    "Third party apps can be good, but they often don’t feel quite like the real thing. " -- weird, I figured that Office would be considered a 3rd-party app in relation to Symbian ?

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Third party in relation to the app manufacturer, which is MS in this case.

      Now I can read Powerpoint joke e-mails as they should be read instead of squinting at QuickOffice.

      Well, I will be able to once it comes out for the N8, which is delayed. I hope it's delayed because MS Apps 2.0 runs on Belle FP1 which means that the release of MS Apps 2.0 for the N8 will coincide with the release of Belle FP1 for the N8. That would actually be the closest Nokia have ever come to confirming an OS update.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Meh

    Meh with oak leaves and bar, in fact.

    What next? 'Duke Nukem Forever' for Mattel Intellivision?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ok

    ok

  10. spegru

    Ooh does that mean

    I will be able to run Office 2007 on my Psion Series 7?

    Now that would be neat......

  11. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
    Trollface

    Ohh

    [Sarcasm]Can I have BSOD for Symbian as well?[/Sarcasm]

  12. Jess

    Perhaps Nokia/MS don't want to antagonise Nokia's existing userbase.

    Let's face it, if you have bought a nice shiny N8, and it is artificially crippled by Nokia pulling the plugs, you are hardly going to go out and buy another Nokia, especially if it has a new OS with few apps.

    (It reminds me of when Sega killed the Saturn, when it was still a large platform, and wondered why the Dreamcast then flopped.)

    It will hardly give confidence that they won't do an HP/WebOS with the system. (Especially with all the talk of Windows 8.)

    The added bonus for Nokia is that Symbian will remain a viable platform FOR when they need to backpedal..

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Perhaps Nokia/MS don't want to antagonise Nokia's existing userbase.

      Maybe MS were already working on it and figured it was worth finishing... anything to make Nokia under any guise look good has to be worth it.

      1. Manu T

        Re: Perhaps Nokia/MS don't want to antagonise Nokia's existing userbase.

        "anything to make Nokia under any guise look good has to be worth it."

        isn't that what this business is about these days? Look good so you can beg for a big fat bonus from your shareholders/investors at the end o/t year.

  13. Lance 3

    Why is this news? From August 2009:

    "The new alliance between Microsoft and Nokia under which Nokia will integrate Microsoft's Office and other applications into its smartphones is a necessary move for both companies to remain relevant in their business market and compete against RIM's BlackBerry.

    That's the conclusion of J.Gold Associates, a Northborough, Mass.-based analyst firm, in a new analysis of the partnership.

    Microsoft and Nokia said on Wednesday that the two will collaborate on the design, development and marketing of mobile productivity solutions by bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia's Symbian smartphones."

  14. Cupboard
    Happy

    Here lives a happy Symbian user

    After having had an Android smartphone for nearly two years, I bought myself a second hand Nokia E55 as my work phone a couple of months ago.

    The mapping is better.

    The battery life is measured in a sensible number of days.

    It is small and light whilst still having a QWERTY keyboard.

    It still has push email, web browsing etc.

    It might not be quite as all singing and dancing but that doesn't make it bad and I, for one, welcome (hopefully) decent new apps. Whether or not I'll get a version for my slightly aging handset is another matter, sadly I haven't found a Symbian equivalent of CyanogenMod yet.

  15. bed

    Various unrelated points...

    1. As yet there there is no Win Phone 7 device with a keyboard so (aplogies if incorrect), for those that want one, a C6/E7 with MS Apps (and exchange e-mail) may be a sensible option

    2. Onenote, which syncronises with Skydrive or Sharpoint and hence other devices, may turn out to be the surprise killer app for a certain market segmet

    3. Onenote is also available for Android - which may make you wonder: why not other MS apps.

    Cheers

    1. skuzzzy

      Re: Various unrelated points...

      There was one a while ago, not sure if its still available/any good, but there was one...

      http://www.reghardware.com/2011/02/22/review_phone_htc_7_pro/

  16. Confuciousmobil
    Thumb Up

    Next up...

    DOS for Symbian?

    Symbian was showing its age when I got my E90

    Nokia should have stuck with Meego.

    I'm sure this will please the few people that still use Symbian but they are a dying breed. Let them have their fun while they can.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: Next up...

      I'm not sure why Symbian is showing its age, apart from the atrocious UI that Nokia insisted on bolting onto it. It was designed in the 90s, true multitasking, microkernel, uses few resources, has application-based permissions, and is realtime enough to run the radio stack and application stack on one CPU and separate them so an application going AWOL doesn't affect the radio stack.

      If your complaint is that the UI is not as shiny as others, I wholeheartedly agree. Nokia are finally getting there, sadly probably too late.

      If your complaint is that it's not new, both Android and iOS are shoehorning Unix-based OS onto a mobile platform with varying degrees of success especially with regards to resource usage, battery life, application security and data separation.

      1. Dinky Carter

        Re: Next up...

        Well said sir.

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