Virtually all Nokia phones currently run the Symbian operating system and such a move would be a major change for the industry leader.

Microsoft’s mobile communications business international marketing director John Starkweather confirmed talks were taking place with Nokia but would not confirm when any announcement would be made.

“They obviously have significant investments in Symbian but there are a lot of places where we have significant synergies and we would love to see the day where those synergies would extend completely with Windows Mobile,” he told IT Wire.

While Nokia phones don’t yet have a Windows OS, they do use a range of other Microsoft software. This includes ActiveSynch for connecting to Exchange Servers and the PlayReady DRM technology used to protect purchased music and video content.

Windows Mobile currently only has just over 6% of the smartphone operating system market compared to more than 70% for Symbian. However, it is gaining acceptance among smartphone manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung that have released Windows Mobile based handsets offering similar features to the Apple iPhone which runs a mobile version of Mac OS X.

Starkweather said the existing relationship between the two companies was strong and he was enthusiastic about it developing further in the future.

“We work closely with Nokia and we would love to have them go all the way,” he said. “It’s something we talk about all the time.”