Symbian Gets Productivity Power-Up With New Microsoft Office Mobile Apps

The most notable fruit of Microsoft and Nokia’s close working relationship is certainly the handsome line of Lumia Windows Phones, but the deal has had its share of fringe benefits as well.

Take its impact on Symbian for instance — Microsoft announced last September that they would be giving the platform a shot in the arm with the initially Windows Phone-only Office productivity suite, and now they’ve made good on their word with the release of their Microsoft Office Mobile apps.

Word, Excel, and Powerpoint are all present and accounted for, and while I don’t need to tell you what they’re meant to do, Nokia points out a few thoughtful features on their Conversations blog. Word Mobile retains proper formatting for tables and images, for example, while Excel plays nice with formulae inputted on the small screen and Powerpoint lets users add presentation notes and skim through slides in Outline mode.

The update is limited to Symbian Belle devices, and owners of the Nokia 701, Nokia 700, Nokia 603, Nokia E7, Nokia X7, Nokia C7, Nokia Oro, or Nokia C6-01 will have first crack at them — they’re but a quick software update away. Users on the run can perform the necessary update on the device itself or via the Nokia Suite on a computer when things settle down a bit. If you’re not in a huge rush to pore over your spreadsheets on the metro though, feel free to wait for the app to hit the Nokia Store in the coming weeks.

Nokia also plans to bring the productivity love to a few more handsets, with devices like the Nokia N8, Nokia E6, and the Nokia 500 currently on the shortlist. Meanwhile, those of you lucky (or crazy) enough to consider purchasing the 808 PureView won’t have to worry about software updates or app downloads at all — the full complement of Office apps will come preloaded on the hefty handset.