BEIJING, March. 24 -- Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software maker, signed an agreement allowing its biggest mobile phone software rival, Symbian Ltd, to deliver e-mail stored with Microsoft's Exchange program to customers' phones.

    Symbian will update its current phone software so users can directly synchronize e-mail, contacts, calendar and other personal data with corporate server computers that use Microsoft's Exchange program. Financial terms were not disclosed, London-based Symbian said yesterday.

    Symbian and Microsoft compete to convince phone makers to use their software for advanced wireless devices such as so-called smart phones, which allow users to check e-mail, listen to music and send pictures. The agreement may make it more difficult for Microsoft to take market share from Symbian, said Richard Windsor, an analyst at Nomura Securities in London.

    "This is a further blow to Microsoft's mobile division," Windsor said. "If e-mail on competing devices is as good as it is on Microsoft Mobile then the reason to buy a Microsoft powered device will be obviously diminished."

    Sixty-nine per cent of the smart phones and portable devices capable of making phone calls shipped in 2004 ran on Symbian software. Eight per cent ran Microsoft's program.

    Microsoft fell 21 US cents to US$23.99 at 4 pm New York time in NASDAQ Stock Market composite trading. Shares of Research in Motion Ltd, which makes the Blackberry wireless e-mail device, fell US$4.79, or 5.8 per cent, to US$77.35 on investor concern over increased competition from Microsoft and Symbian.

    Microsoft is trying to license its Exchange protocols as widely as possible and has reached similar agreements with Nokia Oyj, Motorola Inc and PalmOne Inc in the last six months, David Kaefer, director of business development in Microsoft's Intellectual Property and Licensing group, said yesterday.

    "The adoption of our technology by a provider like Symbian is a huge win for us," he said. "Sometimes you have to make tough choices, but you try to make a decision that's good for company as a whole."

    Microsoft is in talks to licence the technology to "one or two other European carriers," Kaefer said.

    Microsoft's mobile software group said it will still be able to make its products better than Symbian. Symbian has licensed the ability to let customers view e-mail or appointments, while Microsoft's mobile software gives customers a miniature version of the popular Outlook e-mail and schedule program that is similar to what users have on their personal computers, said John Starkweather, senior product manager for the mobile group.

    (Source: China Daily by Ville Heiskanen and Dina Bass)