Nokia and Vodafone partner for Internet services

Nokia and Vodafone have entered into a partnership for Vodafone to provide Nokia’s mobile Internet services platform, Ovi, on its handsets in Europe.

The Ovi platform, which features music, maps, gaming and social networking capabilities, will be available on Vodafone handsets in 2008, and will run side by side with Vodafone ‘Live’, to bring customers a wider choice of content.

Vodafone has invested substantially in Vodafone Live, since it was launched in 2002, and it is considered to be a strong enough brand to work alongside Nokia’s Internet platform.

On the Ovi portal, Vodafone’s music content will be listed above Nokia’s own music store.

The deal also involves Nokia manufacturing some handsets exclusively for Vodafone.

Nokia’s agreement with Vodafone follows a similar deal with Telefonica Moviles earlier in 2007.

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