With an iPod rival on tap, Nokia dumps enterprise software and security

With a new touch-screen phone dubbed "The Tube" rumored for later this week, Nokia is creating a new consumer e-mail service, while dropping its in-house enterprise software development and striving to sell its security appliances arm.

In line with its intentions to turn into more of an "Internet company," mobile phone maker Nokia today announced plans to stop producing its own enterprise software, in favor of pacts with companies like Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco. In addition, it will to sell its security appliances line-up to a financial investor, if a contemplated deal goes through.

It also looks as though Nokia expects to help finance some of its further forays into consumer phones by selling off its security appliances business to an as yet unnamed investor.

"If this transaction is concluded, it would be an extremely positive development for the security appliance business, which will be able to realize its full potential under the new ownership," contended Niklas Savander, Novia's executive VP for Services & Software, in a statement today.

Now, the Finland-based company is rumored to be planning an announcement of its first touchscreen phone, "The Tube," at a media and analyst event in London on Thursday.

Under today's announcement, Nokia will keep and expand on software-based Internet services such as Comes with Music. However, the company will roll its previous, intranet-oriented "behind-the-firewall business solutions" into a new consumer push e-mail service, while focusing on selling its business with applications from Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, and other software vendors.

Nokia first started making a big play for the consumer space earlier this year, while in the middle of creating a set of Internet-based services that includes Comes with Music, an offering targeted at competing with Apple's iTunes, and Nokia Maps, Nokia's answer to Google Maps.

"Our goal is to act less like a traditional manufacturer, and more like an Internet company," said Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, at an Nokia shareholders meeting in May. "Companies such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft are not our traditional competitors, but they are major forces that must be reckoned with. Make no mistake. We are taking on these challenges seriously and aggressively."

Nokia announced plans in September to bundle Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync on Nokia S60 phones. Apple's iPhone began support for ActiveSync in version 2.0 of its software; and new rivalry on the enterprise front could be coming from Google's Android platform down the road.