Microsoft, Nokia alliance

New York - Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, and Nokia, the biggest mobile phone maker globally, were to announce a partnership Wednesday that would enable Microsoft Office to run on Nokia phones, US media reports said.

Details of the alliance were announced at 1500 GMT Wed, 08/12/2009 by Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's business division, and Kai Oistamo, executive vice president for Nokia Devices, according to a statement from Microsoft.

Last month, Microsoft unveiled new details of its Office 2010 productivity tools, which will feature a free online program to counter similar programs already available from Google and other competitors. The final version of Office 2010 is due next year.

Sales of Office software are a mainstay of Microsoft. The Office division has earned profits of over 9 billion dollars in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2009, on sales of 14.3 billion dollars.

Microsoft has said that Office 2010 documents have the ability to be displayed on a variety of mobile phones, CNET news reported, expanding the company's reach from the traditional PC market to the internet and mobile devices.