BlackBerry Connect and Nokia

Has anyone noticed all of the BlackBerry Connect offerings on Nokia mobile devices coming out lately? If you search RIMarkable for BlackBerry Connect, many of the results come back with Nokia in the post title.

Normally I would say that this is great and that I wish BlackBerry Connect would come around in the United States, (I really do hope that BlackBerry Connect catches on in the U.S.), but the cynic in me cannot help but notice that the the Nokia 9300 smartphone and the Nokia 9500 Communicator are the Nokia devices that you can get BlackBerry Connect on, but are also the devices on which you can get Nokia Business Center.

You remember Nokia Business Center don’t you? It is Nokia’s push-based mobile email solution for business users aimed directly at Research in Motion. I find it very interesting that Nokia can say to a potential customer, “We can offer you a mobile device that you can use on your company’s corporate BES implementation, however, if you are looking for a lower cost alternative to BlackBerry, you can use our device with Nokia Business Center as well.

Nokia didn’t become the largest mobile phone manufacturer by not being business savvy. They know that they can’t just compete head to head against RIM with Nokia Business Center right out of the blocks. Trying to get a BlackBerry user to switch to another platform is like, well, trying to get a BlackBerry user to switch to another platform. Nokia makes their money by selling devices and that isn’t changing anytime soon. If they sell a device that has BlackBerry Connect on it, they have met their goal in selling a device. When that device gets hooked up to Nokia Business Center, that is just like icing on the cake.