Nokia has announced plans to add support for IBM Lotus Notes and Domino servers to its Nokia Business Center mobile application platform.

The extension of the suite, which was unveiled in September, enables firms using Lotus to roll out mobile collaborative applications including push email.

Nokia Business Center is designed to allow standard mobile phones to access mobile email by providing companies with two options: a free standard client that comes with Nokia Business Center and offers basic push email capabilities; and a "richly featured professional" client available for an upgrade fee.

The application currently supports mobile email over 10 Nokia smartphones and communicators, with support promised for new models as they are announced.

"IBM Lotus Notes and Domino represent a significant part of the corporate email landscape," said Dave Grannan, general manager of Nokia's Enterprise Solutions Mobile Email group.

Ken Bisconti, vice president, workplace, portal and collaboration products at IBM, added: "These solutions assist our customers in extending mail and other mission critical applications to mobile devices to address the growing needs of a mobile workforce."

Nokia Business Center with Lotus Notes and Domino support is expected to be available for customers during the first quarter of 2006.