Wait, what? File this one at the very top of the "strange bedfellows" category: Nokia and Microsoft have stopped scrapping for smartphone supremacy long enough to bring a full suite Windows Live services to a number of Nokia's S60 devices -- devices, may we add, that do direct battle with Windows Mobile hardware. Specifically, Hotmail, Messenger, Contacts, and Spaces are all available immediately as downloads for N73, N76, N80 Internet Edition, N93i, and N95 in select European and Middle Eastern countries (no US love for the time being); Microsoft's saying that the services are free for now, but users may be looking at a subscription fee down the road. To be fair, this isn't the first time Microsoft has extended a Windows Live olive branch to Espoo, but it's the first time the partnership has been this broad. It's gonna get even broader, too; look for Windows Live to find its way into Nokia's Series 40 platform some time next year.

Sprint-Nextel (the company that has one messaging problem after another) has introduced a new combined email client for several of its current phones. With Mobile Email, Sprint customers can access their AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo! accounts from their handsets. Mobile Email will also be able to add access to other POP3 and IMAP accounts, allow users to set up alerts when new mail arrives, and compose and save email for later use even when they are out of coverage. With this being a zero cost application to download, Sprint is hoping to increase users' dependency for mobile data which will drive other application downloads. Don't be too worried that Gmail didn't make the list of included clients as the POP support should have you covered.

While it's no secret that mobile search (and subsequent advertising) is a hot ticket right now, Microsoft is lagging badly behind search giants Google and Yahoo. While all three scramble to grab partnerships with everyone from HP to Acer (to Dell), Microsoft has landed what is quite possibly its biggest foothold on the blossoming mobile search market yet. By teaming up with Sprint Nextel, customers of the carrier will be greeted by Microsoft's Windows Live search bar at the top of Sprint's menu page when they access the internet from their mobile. Per usual, the search engine can look for "news, sports scores and ringtones" within the carrier's own mobile portal, or "search outside of Sprint's network for local information" such as nearby eateries, theaters, or GameStop locations. While specifics of the deal weren't disclosed, we do know that the two firms will "split the profits" from ad revenue, and that Sprint Nextel customers should see the newfangled box hitting their mobile internet screen right now.

[Via Textually]