Nokia is engaged in close combat with the internet’s leading companies as their incursions increase into its domain of the cellphone.
It gave a frosty reception on Monday to Google’s Android mobile phone software platform, which will rival the Nokia-backed Symbian operating system.
Then there was a strong riposte on Wednesday with the announcement that its internet portal Ovi will be included by Vodafone on its high-end handsets.
The deal with the world’s biggest mobile operator by revenue is a tangible win for the company compared to the vague promise of the Open Handset Alliance to Google.
Following on from a similar deal with Telefonica last month, it shows operators are willing to give a place to the handset maker’s internet services alongside their own content and services.
Smaller battles are also being won and lost.
Google acquired a company from under Nokia’s nose last month when it bought Jaiku, an Helsinki-based rival to the Twitter mobile microblogging service.
Jaiku was founded by ex-Nokia employees and the leading handset maker had adopted its technology, so it would have made a natural acquisition for a company looking for Web 2.0 smarts.
It already has Mosh, of course – a three-month-old service developed in-house that allows its members to upload and share content such as photos, videos, ringtones and games.
Mosh, short for mobilise and share, is proof that Nokia can think outside the box, or handset. It was thought up a year ago by Americans and Finns locked up in a hotel outside Helsinki for a month. “We were told to come up with something game-changing,” says George Linardos, Director of Experience, Forum Nokia.
So far, it has attracted more than 6m downloads of applications and content since its launch on August 9 and works on all Web-enabled devices.
The service will launch Seek next month, allowing users to request customised content such as a specific video or detailed map of an area for their phone.
With Mosh, Nokia beat another internet company, at least to the name. Legal letters were exchanged when Yahoo’s new social network Mash was under development with the title Mosh.
Nokia pointed out it got there first, and a mishmash over Mosh was avoided.
