This week's news that Nokia will be releasing versions of Microsoft Silverlight for S60, as well as Series 40 and Maemo, illustrates the sometime bizarre tug of war between competition and cooperation in the mobile world.
For Microsoft gaining traction for SilverLight will be something of an uphill struggle, given that the competition - namely Adobe Flash - has virtual ubiquity in both the PC and mobile worlds. Getting Silverlight onto 40% of new handset shipments from say 2009/2010 will be significant in its own right, but also a enabling catalyst for other mobile platforms and manufacturers to follow.
For Nokia, opening up a new runtime to developers obviously increases the appeal of the S60 platform. A new runtime almost certainly means more applications.
The most significant benefit to Nokia, however, is the position this gives S60 compared to other mobile platforms. The Web is becomes a more important ingredient in the mobile-user experience. Support for both Flash and Silverlight ensures S60 users will be able to access the widest range of Web sites and Web content. When Apple are prognosticating over Flash support and Androids position is unclear, this announcement gives S60 a clear lead in delivering Web on the go - at least until Nokia's Webkit based browser arrives on the Series 40 platform.
While few details on the financial arrangements are available, Nokia will be making a big investment in Silverlight. This is because of the extra ROM needed to deliver what could be a fairly marginal technology for a few years to come. This investment should not be underestimated. The few extra cents per handset added up over tens of millions of devices.
Ultimately, the clearest message this announcement sends is that to be truly mobile you need to be on the S60 platform - end of story.
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