Nokia has announced its intention to make Microsoft Silverlight available for S40 and S60 phones, along with Nokia Internet tablets.

The decision strengthens Silverlights position as a competitor to Flash, but more importantly (as I noted perhaps prematurely last week) readies Microsoft’s Silverlight platform for the one game that’s new enough that it might have a hope in winning: offline apps up against Adobe’s AIR platform. Rumor has it that we may well see an offline Silverlight announcement at Microsoft Mix this week.

Microsoft will be demonstrating Silverlight on a S60 at the first Mix keynote tomorrow. Presuming there’s internet access (there was this morning) tune in to TechCrunch at 9:30 PST Wednesday where I’ll be live blogging the first keynote featuring Ray Ozzie, Scott Guthrie, Dean Hachamovitch from the floor.

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Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has acquired Norwegian platform application development provider Trolltech for $153 million.

Trolltech is the developer of Qt, the cross-platform application development framework used for the development of GUI programs and for developing non-GUI programs such as console tools and servers. Qt is used in by Opera, Google Earth and Skype among others.

The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval and final closure, with 66.43% of shareholders having already accepted the bid.

Nokia said that the acquisition will allow it “to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business.” The interesting part (did someone say Android?):

With Trolltech, Nokia and third party developers will be able to develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia’s device portfolio and on PCs. Nokia’s software strategy for devices is based on cross-platform development environments, layers of software that run across operating systems, enabling the development of applications across the Nokia device range. Examples of current cross-platform layers are Web runtime, Flash, Java and Open C.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2008.

(via Engadget)

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Telecommunications solutions supplier Nokia Siemens has acquired mobile network management provider Apertio For €140 million.

Bristol, UK based Apertio provides customer management tools to mobile operators, as well as “convergence” tools that enable the delivery of multimedia content to handsets. Apertio’s “One” suite also caters to the growing Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) market.

Apertio software is currently used by carriers including Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone and the company has offices in the United States, Germany, Thailand, Malaysia and China.

The acquisition is expected to be finalized prior to the end of the first quarter.

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If things go well, we might finally see that Gphone by the middle of next year. Google is in heated talks with wireless carriers in the U.S., including Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, (and Vodafone internationally) to carry the Gphone, reports the WSJ. Google already competes (and cooperates) with some of these carriers. It recently fought with Verizon, for instance, over the rules of the upcoming 700 Mhz wireless spectrum auctions, while it is partnering with Sprint on its upcoming Wimax network. The only carrier not mentioned is AT&T, which carries the iPhone.

When the Gphone does come out, chances are that there won’t be just one Gphone, but many. In the next two weeks, Google is also expected, says the WSJ, “to announce new software and services that handset makers could use to build customized Google-powered phones.” Just as in social networking, Google wants to make mobile phones an open platform that developers can build lots of applications on top of. We may very well see a mobile 2.0 platform war brewing between the Gphone, the iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Nokia’s Ovi.

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Nokia is buying digital mapmaker Navteq for $8 billion. (See WSJ coverage here).  Navteq powers many in-car navigation services, but it is also one of the providers of mapping data used in Google Maps. Every mobile device should include mapping services. It’s a natural fit. But will Nokia try to charge extra for this or will every future Nokia phone come with free maps?

You can already get Navteq-powered Google Maps on many phones today like the iPhone or the Blackberry. It’s becoming a killer app for phones. Nokia could try to charge Google a whole lot more for the Navteq maps, but that might just drive Google deeper into the arms of its other map vendor, Tele Atlas.

The smart move for Nokia would be to negotiate with Google to share in any future map-based advertising revenues in return for distributing the mobile version of Google Maps with every new Nokia phone. (The cell phone carriers would have to be brought into the negotiations and given a cut as well, but it could be done). That way, consumers would get free maps and a reason to stick with Nokia. And Nokia won’t have to try to beat Google at its own game. Google has a much better chance of figuring out mobile advertising than Nokia, and its mapping software already has a huge following among both consumers and developers.

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Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Enpocket.

Boston based Enpocket provides technology and services centered on mobile advertising. Enpocket’s platform delivers mobile advertising across multiple formats including SMS, MMS, mobile Internet advertising, and video.

Nokia said in a statement that the acquisition will allow it to accelerate the scaling of its mobile advertising business by leveraging Enpocket’s platform and strong partnerships with advertisers, publishers and operators.

Enpocket competes with companies including Third Screen Media, now owned by AOL, Screentonic (acquired by Microsoft) and the Sequoia Capital backed AdMob.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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