Nokia inks Microsoft Silverlight deal

Silverlight will be available to Nokia S60 developers later this year

Nokia has revealed plans to make Microsoft's Silverlight cross-platform browser plug-in available on its S60 smartphones, Series 40 devices and internet tablets running Symbian OS.

Adding support for Silverlight allows developers to create interactive applications that run on multiple platforms in a consistent and reliable way, according to the mobile giant.

"Today's consumers want easy access to tightly integrated services and data on any device," said Lee Williams, a senior vice president at Nokia.

"Nokia's software strategy is based on cross-platform development environments, enabling the creation of rich applications across the Nokia range. "

Silverlight is a cross-browser plug-in for delivering rich media and interactive applications across multiple platforms.

"This is an important relationship on so many levels," said S. Somasegar, senior vice president of Microsoft's Developer Division.

"Working with Nokia allows us to reach a huge number of mobile users, including customers of all S60 licensees. This is a significant step in gaining broad acceptance for Silverlight and ensuring that it is platform agnostic."

Bola Rotibi, a principal analyst at Ovum, believes there is clear market demand for rich web-based services across a variety of device types, but warned that developing these can be commercially difficult.

"For Microsoft this extends Silverlight to a broader range of vendors, platforms and devices. For Nokia it expands the web runtime options on its devices, enabling a wider community of developers and more applications," he said.

"This should help the uptake of faster mobile services and advance a new era of anytime, anywhere device-based computing."

Silverlight will be available to S60 developers later this year with initial service delivery anticipated shortly thereafter for all S60 licensees.

Availability for Nokia Series 40 devices and Nokia Internet tablets will be confirmed "later".