In what would be a blow to Microsoft, if in fact it is true, two Scandinavian websites claim Nokia is replacing Internet Explorer with Firefox on 55,000 company desktops. The most likely reason to do that in a corporation is for security reasons, so one wonders if Nokia are sick of dealing with IE’s more or less continuous steam of security flaws.
You can read more about it here, but only if you read Norwegian. For an English summary, see here.
However, a Nokia representative has since stated that this is a misunderstanding and that the migration is not taking place.
So are they or aren’t they switching? Time will tell. As recently as last week, Nokia announced a major collaborative project with Microsoft. So my best guess is that Nokia did plan to make the switch, perhaps not as openly as it came about, meanwhile, when Microsoft got wind of it, it pressed it’s contacts to quiet the thunder. If the switch now occurs, it will be done more quietly. Unfortunately — assuming it was going to happen — it may get killed before implementation because of business pressures. IDG have reported in the past that Nokia donated money to the Mozilla foundation, and Mozilla started working on a mini browser for the phone market around the same time, and also that Nokia have been considering Firefox for desktop use for some time.
We look forward to the day when the reason to use Internet Explorer will be because it is the best and tightest browser in the market, not because you fear reprisal or backlash in other business dealings.
