[Year 12 IT Apps] Nokia to support Silverlight

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Nokia to use Microsoft's Web video technology

Reuters  Tuesday March 4 2008
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7355883>

HELSINKI, March 4 (Reuters) - Nokia said on Tuesday it would add support
to Microsoft's Silverlight Web video technology to millions of its
handsets, in the latest deal between the two technology giants.

The world's top cellphone maker Nokia said Silverlight would first be
available for S60 software platform, used in more advanced phones, but 
later also for S40, which is used in many of Nokia's cheaper phones.

Nokia's S60 software, built on UK-based mobile phone software firm
Symbian's operating system, is used extensively in Nokia's line-up, but
also in advanced cellphones of LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics.

The S60 is used in every second smartphone sold globally, and is in more
than 150 million phones sold so far.  Its closest rival is Microsoft's own
Windows Mobile, with just over 10 percent of the market.

In 2005 the two companies signed their first co-operation agreement to put
Windows Media player on to Nokia phones, raising eyebrows as the two had
been fierce competitors in the mobile software industry.

As cellphone prices fall, handset vendors are looking for new revenue from
potentially lucrative software operations, while Microsoft is looking for
new revenue from the mobile space.

In 2007 Nokia also started to use Microsoft's copy protection software
PlayReady and added access to Windows Live services to its cellphones.

Silverlight is a rival to Adobe System Inc's Flash technology.

"We continue to support Flash and several other technologies," Nokia
spokesman Mark Durrant said. 

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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Cheers, people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia