T-Mobile partners with Nokia to offer new services

By Giselle Abramovich

May 5, 2008

Striking the right tone

Wireless carrier T-Mobile and handset maker Nokia are collaborating to produce Internet services and personal social communities on mobile devices.

Through this partnership, T-Mobile and Nokia will be able to offer their European customers faster and easier access to all of T-Mobile's web'n'walk Internet services as well as to Nokia's Ovi Internet services.

“These types of partnerships will be most successful when they're focused on how mobile consumers actually want to digest their mobile media,” said Nicholas Covey, director of Insights at Chicago-based Nielsen Mobile. “If the Nokia and T-Mobile mobile Internet services deal can make the T-Mobile media experience more compelling for users, it's a no-brainer."

The companies also plan to improve T-Mobile's community-oriented MyFaves service, launched in October in Europe.

Widget cooperation is another focus area for the companies, where T-Mobile's leading web'n'walk offering will provide a richer user experience. T-Mobile's web'n'walk is positioned as offering customers an instant and customizable access to their most preferred Internet and messaging services.

Nic Covey is director of insights at Nielsen Mobile

“If operators want to be more than just the pipes by which consumers seek others' content and platforms, these types of open and innovative partnerships will be important,” Mr. Covey said.

“As consumers explore off-deck capabilities, anything that can add value to the on-deck experience - even if that means letting a device manufacturer in on the action - could help carrier portals stay relevant," he said.

For T-Mobile customers, Nokia will customize its devices to provide a suite of T-Mobile services which will be integrated into Nokia devices.

Similarly, T-Mobile customers can access Nokia's Internet services, such as music, maps and games, through their Nokia device. 

“I'm glad to see Nokia and T-Mobile acknowledge the importance making social networking more mobile through this announcement,” Mr. Covey said.

“In the United States, more than 4 million mobile users already access social networks over their phones and we see similar penetration in Europe," he said. "Social networking is a broad utility and improving mobile social networking capabilities could help increase mobile media usage overall.”