Nokia gets new communicator app, Office suite as it shake hands with Microsoft

The first application from Microsoft's mobile productivity suit has arrived for Nokia phones. The Communicator Mobile app helps business mobile users see their colleagues' availability and helps them find the best way to get in contact with them –- whether that be via instant message, email, text or voice call.

"Our alliance with Nokia aims to bring the Office productivity experience to the millions of people using Nokia smartphones around the world," says Kirt Debique, General Manager at Microsoft in a May 5 press release. "With the arrival of Communicator Mobile for Nokia today, we have a great start to fulfilling our joint vision."

With the Communicator Mobile app installed, the statuses of user's colleagues are directly embedded into the contact list. From there users can also update their own status, start or join instant messaging sessions or make a voice call to any other contact.

"This application really provides a much more efficient way to work with others as you can see if someone is busy or available, and the best way to start a conversation with them," explains Ukko Lappalainen, Vice President at Nokia. "It also meets all of the requirements for enterprise: cost effective to implement, secure, familiar and reliable."

Communicator is just the first in a series of new mobile productivity apps expected to come from the Nokia-Microsoft alliance.

The application is currently only available for Nokia E72 and E52 models but is expected to be ported to additional Nokia smartphone models in the near future.