Kamis, 13 Maret 2008

Nokia plans to include Microsofts Silverlight on its S60 software platform for smartphones running the Symbian OS, beginning later this year. Microsofts cross-platform multimedia plug-in will eventually also be on Nokias Series 40 devices and Internet Web tablets as well as devices running the Windows Mobile and Linux operating systems.

The deal with Microsoft will provide smartphone developers with more opportunities to create media-rich, interactive applications that run on multiple mobile platforms in a consistent and reliable way, Nokia executives said.

"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 Nokia Senior Vice President Lee Williams. "Nokia aims to support market-leading and content-rich Internet application environments and to embrace and encourage open innovation."

REACHING A HUGE MARKET

According to the Symbian consortium, in which Nokia holds a commanding 47.9 percent share, more than 77.3 million Symbian-based smartphones were shipped worldwide last year -- a 50 percent rise from 2006. The consortium noted that 188 million Symbian-enabled smartphones have shipped since its formation in 1998.

Research firm Canalys pegs Symbians share of the global smartphone market at 53 percent. So working with Nokia will give Microsoft an opportunity to reach a huge number of mobile users, including the customers of all S60 licensees, said Microsoft Senior Vice President S. Somasegar.

"This is a significant step in gaining broad acceptance for Silverlight and ensuring it is platform-agnostic," Somasegar said. "This is critical since we want to make sure developers and designers dont have to constantly re-create the wheel and build different versions of applications and services for multiple operating systems, browsers and platforms."

BRIDGING TECHNICAL BARRIERS

According to Ray Ozzie, Microsofts chief software architect, the AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) techniques that developers have long used to create interactive Web-based applications have limitations. "Certainly there are better languages than JavaScript to use for many of the sophisticated apps that developers want to build," Ozzie said at the time of Silverlights unveiling last year.

What Silverlight does is bridge technical barriers that previously made it difficult for Web developers and designers to collaborate, Ozzie said.

"Silverlight changes the game by giving developers a new choice for developing incredibly sophisticated, rich Internet applications in the language of their choice," Ozzie said. "Its a first-class .NET runtime environment, allowing you to leverage existing skills and tools across the continuum of server and service, browser, mobile device, XMA, even on the game console."

Microsoft intends to demonstrate Silverlight running on Nokias S60 software platform in Las Vegas during the opening keynote address of the software giants MIX08 conference on March 5. Microsoft is also poised to issue the first public beta of Silverlight 2 -- a major update that focuses on enabling rich Internet applications through the use of Microsofts homegrown .NET Framework for application development.

"Silverlight 2 includes a cross-platform, cross-browser version of the .NET Framework, and enables a rich .NET development platform that runs in the browser," said Microsoft software developer Scott Guthrie. Moreover, developers will be able to "write Silverlight applications using any .NET language."

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