Shortly after raising $7 million from Bharti Softbank, messaging app Hike has partnered with the handset maker Nokia to preload its app on select Nokia devices, reports PTI (via The Hindu Business Line). The report said that as part of the agreement, Nokia will preload Hike messaging app on Lumia 510, Lumia 720 and all its Nokia Asha Full Touch phones to be sold in India. Nokia India has confirmed this partnership to Medianama, although it declined to share any details on this partnership. We've been waiting for a response from Hike since yesterday and will update the post once we get a response. WhatsApp Partnership: This is the second messaging partnership Nokia has inked in the recent months. Last month, Nokia had partnered with Hike competitor WhatsApp to launch Nokia Asha 210 with a dedicated WhatsApp button and a free WhatsApp subscription for life. It looks like Nokia is probably tapping into the young audience with these partnerships, while the messaging apps get increased user based and better market penetration. However, it is yet to be seen if people will actually opt for these phones. Its also worth noting that majority of the existing phone makers have experimented with its own Chat apps. Apple has iMessage, BlackBerry has BBM, Samsung has ChatOn and Micromax has HookUp, to name a few. Nokia had also recently partnered with Yahoo to relaunch its cross platform chat app Nokia Chat, which allowed users to chat with their friends using Lumia, Asha, S40, and Symbian devices as well as those using Yahoo Messenger service on other…
