Microsoft teams with Nokia to target Mobile Web

Microsoft and Nokia have decided to team up to introduce the rich Silverlight applications on millions of mobile handsets. The software will be brought to Nokia's high end smart phones running a Symbian operating system.

Nokia’s S60 software platform, the Series 40 devices and Nokia Internet tablets would be presented with the Silverlight.

S60, the world’s leading software platform, is used in Nokia's latest N96 phone, the successor to its popular N95. Other manufacturers like LG and Samsung also incorporate it into some of the handsets.

Silverlight, a competitor of Adobe’s Flash, was officially launched in September last year as a cross-platform Web browser plug-in. It allows designers and developers to produce rich web applications that are not-reliant of browser, operating system and handset.

Lee Williams, Senior Vice President in Nokia’s Devices software organization said, “Today’s consumers are very clear in what they want: easy access to tightly integrated services and data on any device.”

Development of Web 2.0 applications that would work on a computer and also on other devices, including mobile phones has been the agenda of Microsoft, the company has persistently asserted.

“By working with Microsoft, we are creating terrific opportunities and additional choices for the development community, S60 licensees and the industry as a whole,” said Williams.

Adobe, the ruler of the market, which has contracts with 18 of the top 20 device manufacturers claims that 450 million devices currently carry Flash Lite.

With its latest alliance with Nokia, Microsoft hopes to battle that. “This is an important relationship on so many levels,” said S. Somasegar, Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Developer Division. “This is a significant step in gaining broad acceptance for Silverlight and ensuring it is platform agnostic.”