AIM for Your Cell Phone?

AOL reportedly plans to develop a version of their instant messaging software for Nokia cell phones, enabling Nokia phone users to communicate with AOL’s 100 million instant-messenger users.

Both companies say they plan to work together on the AOL Instant Messenger for the Nokia phones, and other wireless projects in the future.

"The combination of the Internet and mobility will transform everyday life, giving users a new found freedom through intuitive, personalized and location-based applications and services," said K-P Wilska , President, Nokia Inc. (Americas). "We are excited to be working with AOL to bring instant messaging to the wireless world, and to provide this unique service to both of our customers."

"A key part of our AOL Anywhere strategy is to bring many of our most popular products and services to different devices and interactive platforms, including wireless communications. We are pleased to join with Nokia, an industry leader, to work to develop applications to make AIM, one of the easiest, fastest ways to communicate in cyberspace, available for Nokia's wireless devices," said Bob Pittman, President and Chief Operating Officer for America Online in a press release.

Also according to the press release:

"The new application will be optimized to take advantage of AOL/Tegic Communications's T9 predictive text input technology, an enabler for AOL Instant Messenger services on cell phones and other mobile devices. The Nokia 7100 Series phones already utilize T9 to assist in quickly choosing the right word for a short message (SMS). The predictive text input method is considerably faster than the ordinary way of entering text."

The new software is due out in the second half of 2000, according to sources.