Fast Company magazine this month features an interview with Tero Ojanperä, Nokia’s executive vice president of entertainment and communities. The 43-year old Finn told a New York gathering of music executives about Nokia’s plans to revolutionize the music industry while also gaining a firm foothold in the U.S. The darling of Euro mobile phones, Nokia is stepping up its efforts to reach a broad audience, directly competing with the world’s most famous ‘fruit.’

Recently announcing Microsoft as a partner, Nokia said in a press release last week that :

Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Nokia's Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Oistamo, outlin[ed] shared vision for the future of mobile productivity. This is the first time that either company has embarked on an alliance of this scope and nature.

Next year, Nokia intends to start shipping Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones, followed by other Office applications and related software and services in the future. These will include:

• The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote
• Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile
• Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server
• Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center

"Having these two major players cooperating at this level will help us continue to meet our customer's needs and reinforces our future business mobility strategy," said Diane Sanchez, head of Telefonica USA.

But that’s not all – Nokia also plans to revolutionize the music industry here with its concept of Nokia’s Comes With Music, which allows consumers unlimited downloads of over 6 million songs, fees for which were built into the price of certain handsets.

Fast Company quotes Ojanperä as stating that "If we can get people engaged with music and compete against piracy, then we have won the war. And we believe we are revolutionizing the way music is being consumed." He asserts that “[Nokia] will quickly be the world's biggest entertainment media network,” ahead of what he calls “that fruit company in Cupertino.”

Nokia’s Comes With Music service launched in the U.K. last year to mixed reviews. People generally liked the unlimited music downloads, but had some issues with transportability of music, unlike Apple’s iTunes, which allows music purchasers to burn to CD as well as keep on their mobile devices. The first phones had mixed reviews, but phone technology has changed since then. 

Nokia’s Ovi, launched May 26, is currently the front-runner as its iPhone Killer, and has recently introduced Ovi Files, which are compatible with Macs and purportedly eliminate the need for such things as USB sticks. App developers here also get a large cut of proceeds, and interest in Ovi on launch day caused Nokia’s engineers headaches as more than expected online traffic caused problems for the new Ovi store.