Telecom industry leader Nokia announced the acquisition of Twango, an Internet startup owned by former Microsoft employees, and plans to bring photo and video sharing to its smartphones.

Nokia bought most of the assets owned by Twango’s founders and is bringing a new team to contribute to the expansion of the site’s photo and video sharing capabilities.

Twango is basically an online platform that combines features from Flickr, YouTube or MySpace and by acquiring it, Nokia wants to bridge the PCs and the mobile phones, offering people more freedom when they decide to share their personal files.

"The Twango acquisition is a concrete step towards our Internet services vision of providing seamless access to information, entertainment, and social networks - at anytime, anywhere, from any connected device, in any way that you choose. We have the most complete suite of connected multimedia experiences including music, navigation, games, and - with the Twango acquisition - photos, videos, and a variety of document types," said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Multimedia, Nokia. "When you combine a Nokia Nseries multimedia computer that is always on, always connected, and always with you together with a rich media sharing destination like Twango, people will have exciting new ways to create and enjoy rich media experiences in real time."

Twango is headquartered in Redmond, next to Microsoft’s central establishment, and its creators have tried to differentiate from other popular social networks by offering support for a wide range of media types (video, audio, photos) not only on PC, but on other portable devices with access to Internet (including phones).

"Nokia's unique vision for social media aligns perfectly with Twango," said Twango co-founder, Jim Laurel. "It's really exciting to imagine what we can achieve by combining our social media experience with the resources of a company that has played such a major role in shaping the mobile landscape. Now, we will have the resources to deliver on our vision to enable people to capture and enjoy their personal media on mobile devices, desktop computers and in all the other places that are important to them."
 
Twango co-founder, Serena Glover, adds "As a result of this acquisition, we will aggressively build out our team in the Seattle area, allowing us to deliver a superior global media sharing service."

Nokia is on track of becoming world’s most important source of videos and photos, as the Finnish behemoth reportedly sold more than 140 million cellphones equipped with cameras in 2006.