Nokia touts Windows Live services

Nokia is bringing Windows Live Spaces, Hotmail, Messenger and Contacts to compatible S60 devices

Nokia is offering access to Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces, Hotmail, Messenger and Contacts services to customers in 11 countries with compatible S60 devices.

Starting next year, customers who purchase compatible Nokia Series 40 handsets will have the services preinstalled on the phone.

Jari Pasanen, vice president of strategy and technology at Nokia, said that the deal will allow S60 and S40 users to move seamlessly between contacts, mail, messenger, phone calls, text messaging, camera, gallery and browsing.

The service will initially be available as a free trial, with a monthly fee payable for customers wishing to continue using the service.

However, given that all of these services can be accessed freely through a mobile phone's web browser, customers may be unwilling to pay a subscription fee.

Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of the online services business at Microsoft, hopes that this new suite will "extend people's online lives, taking it from the PC to the device".

The new offering extends the growing co-operation between Nokia and Microsoft, such as the recent inclusion of Microsoft's PlayReady DRM and the integration of Live Search into the Nokia Mobile Search application.