Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

Nokia uses Apple's Macs to announce Microsoft partnership

When Nokia wanted to convince the world that it would bring consumers "stellar hardware and innovative software and great services" in its partnership with Microsoft, it turned to Apple's Mac-only iMovie to get word out.

A video posted by the company's NokiaConversations YouTube account presents its new chief executive Steven Elop, formerly the head of Microsoft's Office-centric Business Division, speaking about how Nokia's new partnership with Microsoft will "create opportunities beyond anything that currently exists."

He may have been referencing the "burning platform" he described Nokia as currently standing upon; Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 hasn't been setting anything on fire.

Elop was joined by Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, who said his partnership with with Nokia would deliver "the brands that mobile consumers want, like Bing, Office, and of course, Xbox Live."

Verizon has already brought Bing to some of its customers forcibly, erasing Google as the default option and generating a response that indicates that, perhaps, consumers don't really want the brand that much after all. Microsoft also failed to bring Office to mobile phones as promised in its previous partnership with Nokia in 2009, when it was Elop himself representing Microsoft in the photos of executives of the two companies shaking hands.

Nokia talks Microsoft but uses iMovie

But that's not the only thing familiar about Nokia's video. Adrian Boioglu, a Romanian blogger, noticed that Nokia's soundtrack was the same used by Apple in its presentation of the new unibody MacBook Pros in 2009. But they're not just borrowing the same catchy tune.

The song is actually Pendulum, an Apple Loop installed as part of iMovie, available for royalty free use by anyone who uses a Mac to create iMovies, at least for non-commercial use.

The license agreement for Apple's included "loop content' reads, "You may use the Apple and third party audio loop content (”Audio Content”), contained in or otherwise included with the Apple Software, on a royalty-free basis, to create your own original soundtracks for your video and audio projects. You may broadcast and/or distribute your own soundtracks that were created using the Audio Content, however, individual audio loops may not be commercially or otherwise distributed on a standalone basis, nor may they be repackaged in whole or in part as audio samples, sound effects or music beds."

Oops! This isn't the first time Microsoft has been embarrassed by the use of Macs within its efforts to sell Windows. In 2008, the company's "I'm a PC" campaign graphics were found to have actually been made on a Mac.