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Nokia adopts Blackberry email code for phones

If RIM's Blackberry was selling well in Europe, it would be a dubious step - selling its unique advantage to its biggest rival. But selling its email-handling software to Nokia could make it a market leader in mobile email, instead of the market straggler

The deal means that Nokia phones in the future will be able to send and receive email over Blackberry-enabled networks (in the UK, it's mmo2, Vodafone, and T-Mobile). It's possible (not certain) that some Nokia phones might have this feature some time in 2003, but pretty certain that nothing will appear on the market this year.

The official announcement of the deal came from Nokia, and was terse to the point of being cryptic: "Nokia today announced that they have signed a BlackBerry (TM) software licensing agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, RIM has granted Nokia the right to use and distribute certain BlackBerry software in conjunction with Nokia products on a global basis."

The exact nature of "certain software" wasn't mentioned. Email was mentioned, eventually - but hidden behind the bland statement that: "As the world's leading mobile phone manufacturer, we understand the power that mobility and messaging have when combined, especially for corporate customers," from Erik Anderson, Senior Vice President, Nokia Mobile Phones.

He finally revealed that "By signing this software licensing deal with RIM, we are able to provide another compelling option for mobile professionals to manage their email while on the move."

Sources inside Nokia this morning confirmed that this means that Nokia phones will be able to use the Blackberry networks on GSM.

"It's a question of who provides the infrastructure, really," said a source. "At the moment, you can't really buy a single Blackberry unit for personal use; they run a server on behalf of a company. So the interesting question is whether you'll be able to buy a single Nokia phone with Blackberry on it, or whether you'll still have to set up a corporate server."

Nokia isn't planning to provide any of its own infrastructure for this, and will rely on network providers like mmo2, Vodafone and T-Mobile to offer any potential personal email, as opposed to corporate - at least, until the 6700 series launches next year.

Research in Motion did their best to sound delighted: "We are pleased to partner with a world leader like Nokia to deliver the popular and proven BlackBerry wireless email experience to Nokia's customers. BlackBerry provides a secure and extensible platform that will enable IT departments to easily support Nokia mobile phones," said Jim Balsillie, Chairman and Co-CEO at Research In Motion.

However the deal is clearly something of a gamble; what he's doing is to give his unique selling proposition to his biggest rival. At the moment, if you have a Blackberry pager, you probably have to buy a phone as well, since the pagers with built-in microphone and earpiece are only available in the US. And similarly, if you have a phone without email, you have to consider a Blackberry pager as well.

Once Nokia phones have Blackberry functions built in, however, the only possible reason for buying the pager unit is that you simply don't want a phone - unless you are happy with the phone capabilities that will be available next year.

Nokia sources suggested that this was a substantial market. "Of course there are going to be people who already have a phone and don't want to change it," said one executive at Nokia. And Nokia is happy to let them keep their old phones? "Can't answer that ... "

It's no secret, however, that RIM sales have been disappointing in Europe. The original Blackberry took off in a country that had no GSM network (at the time) and no public awareness of what GPRS might be able to do. In Europe, however, there are literally dozens of ways of sending and receiving email on a standard mobile phone or phone-enabled PDA.

RIM executives take a bullish view about this. "The Blackberry is a data-centric unit, for people who want mostly data, and maybe a little bit of phone use. The Nokia deal means that people who want mainly phone, but a bit of data, can now use the Blackberry-enabled networks," said the official company mouthpiece.