04 March 2008

Microsoft Silverlight Coming to Nokia

Written by Richard Leggett (

)
Published on March 4th, 2008 @ 11:51:29 am, using 201 words, 1072 views

Categories: Flash Lite, Mobile, Silverlight/WPFe, Microsoft

In a press release today Nokia announced that Symbian OS will include Silverlight. This includes both high-end S60, and low-end series 40. Silverlight is of course the cross-platform RIA runtime from Microsoft, that can be considered a subset of WPF (at least with version 2.0 which has a substantial feature list).

I wonder if Microsoft charged a per-device license fee to Nokia like Adobe did, and if so what the difference is. On top of that there was of course the controversial price to pay for the developer edition of the Flash Lite runtime for Series 60 which is thankfully now free. Clearly there is a fierce competition to be had in this space as the web continues to leak out onto what we currently call “devices", and Microsoft have made it crystal clear Silverlight is high on their list of priorities.

Personally I see Windows Mobile taking a bit of a dive with the strong competition from RIM and Symbian, and more interestingly Google’s Android which I have extremely high hopes for. With that in mind, it’s sensible for Microsoft to find alternate, more up-to-date platforms for continued expansion, and just like the Flash Platform, a ubiquitous WPF/Silverlight stack would provide this.

Permanent Link 2 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: Debra

Google’s Android is what I am looking forward to working with and i see it becoming the standard in mobile web development one day!

Permalink 08/03/08 @ 18:46

Comment from: Marius

It is really really nice the fact that there is a lot of competition on this market, because this competition brings out the best of all the big names.

Honestly I like the most Windows mobile. Yet, I have also played with Symbian a lot ( this is the enviromment I have on my smartphone now ), but I have never tested Google’s Android. Can you give us more details about it ?

Permalink 13/03/08 @ 14:20

About

Richard Leggett is a Freelance RIA and Web Developer (download CV, skills/portfolio coming soon). He is co-author of Foundation Flash Applications for Mobile Devices (Friend of ED), an Adobe Community Expert and speaker at industry conferences and user groups.