Silverlight is a cross-browser multimedia player similar to Adobe Flash that was launched last September after much hype. It runs on Windows, Mac and, soon, Linux. Hitting S60 is a big deal for Microsoft, given its utter domination of the smartphone OS space. It shipped 53 per cent of the 35.5 million smartphones shipped in Q4 2007, according to Canalys.

The expectation is that Silverlight will be embedded on new Nokia devices and downloadable to those already in the market. Microsoft will also develop a version for S40 and Internet tablets. Nokia clearly has an agnostic approach to the space, having signed a similar deal with Adobe for Flash Lite last year.

Adobe says more than 300 million phones have shipped with Flash Lite. Microsoft is aiming for 200 million downloads of Silverlight across all platforms by the middle of this year. It claims that more than 8,000 Web applications using Silverlight are available today.

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