Nokia has set focus to let its Symbian Professional Services unit to be acquired by technology consultant firm Accenture.

Nokia's Symbian Professional Services unit is responsible in providing support for engineering consulting and product development services worldwide to mobile phone manufacturers, chip manufacturers and mobile operators.

Nokia has been closely tied with Symbian and the move of Finnish phone manufacturer will give more distance away from Symbian OS, the world's largest operating system for smart phones, to stand on its own giving out chances for other handset manufactureres to adopt the OS comfortably.

In 2008, Nokia acquired Symbian and transferred the operating system to the nonprofit Symbian Foundation. Recently, the organization announced its plans to work on the development of mobile applications.

Accenture's acquisition with Symbian Professional Services unit is expected to close by the end of third quarter 2009. Approximately 165 people will transfer to Accenture as a result of the agreement.

Software