Microsoft-Nokia deal brings Silverlight to the mobile web

Software giant Microsoft has inked a deal with handset manufacturer Nokia to introduce its Silverlight platform to mobile phones. Deemed as a competitor to Adobe's Flash, Silverlight will debut on Nokia's high end smart phones that run a Symbian operating system.

This development means that the latest web 2.0 applications that run on Mac or PC may now run on mobile phones as well.

Nokia's (Symbian-running) S60 platform will be the first to make use of Silverlight's advantage. S60 is the most popular smart phone software with an over 53% market share. S60 is used in LG and Samsung handsets. It is also used in Nokia's latest phone, the N96.

The Silverlight platform enables web designers and developers to create rich web applications that are not dependent on browsers, operating systems, and handsets. A challenger to the Flash-dominated mobile web world, Silverlight will try to compete in a market of mobile phones that has over 450 million handsets already installed with a cut down version of Flash, called Flash Lite.