Nokia appears to have taken another step away from its legacy systems with an agreement to sell its operator-branded messaging business to Synchronica.
The deal will see the messaging firm take on ten contracts with leading North American carriers including AT&T, Verizon, Rogers and Telus, and includes a commitment for Synchronica to supply messaging software for Nokia’s Series 40 and Symbian devices. Some 250 Nokia staff and contractors will transfer to Synchronica to cover the development work.
Synchronica chief Carsten Brinkschulte says the operator deal will immediately transform his firm’s “scale, profitability and geographic scope.” The North American carriers add to 80 existing contracts with operators in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia Pacific, and increases the firm’s addressable market by six million to 1.8 billion subscribers.
However the deal to transfer development is another move by Nokia away from its legacy software as it gears up to launch smartphones running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 software.
The vendor has already farmed out 3,000 Symbian staff to consultancy Accenture, which is handling future development of that platform, and has all-but abandoned development of its MeeGo software, despite unveiling the N9 smartphone running the software last week.