Microsoft and Nokia get together on Silverlight

I didn’t expect this.

Nokia is working with Microsoft on delivering Silverlight to Nokia phones.

The only thing that would be more shocking is if Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone were going with Silverlight instead of Flash.

Author: Robert Scoble

As Futurist for Rackspace, the leading Managed Cloud Computing Company, Scoble travels the world looking for what's happening on the bleeding edge of technology for Rackspace. He's interviewed thousands of executives and technology innovators and reports what he learns in books ("The Age of Context," a book coauthored with Forbes author Shel Israel, has been released at http://amzn.to/AgeOfContext ), YouTube, and many social media sites where he's followed by millions of people. The best place to find him is here on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble.

Comments

  1. Robert give that Google is threatening both Microsoft (Google Apps) and Nokia (Android)it is not too surprising.

    And I am sure that Flash support was announced in the SDK.

    The bigger worries is in the past when MSFT dominant its competitors often tried to form alliances to prevent it gaining market share and it didn’t work.

    If MSFT buy Yahoo partner with Nokia and even manage to announce a new Office online will people stop using Google for search and advertising. I don’t think so. Companies have life cycles and it feels like MSFT is start in their done cycle and making its last big noise plays.

  2. Robert give that Google is threatening both Microsoft (Google Apps) and Nokia (Android)it is not too surprising.

    And I am sure that Flash support was announced in the SDK.

    The bigger worries is in the past when MSFT dominant its competitors often tried to form alliances to prevent it gaining market share and it didn’t work.

    If MSFT buy Yahoo partner with Nokia and even manage to announce a new Office online will people stop using Google for search and advertising. I don’t think so. Companies have life cycles and it feels like MSFT is start in their done cycle and making its last big noise plays.

  3. […] Creative Weblogging - Main page - The blog network for the discerning consumer and professional. - B… wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt I didn’t expect this. Nokia is working with Microsoft on delivering Silverlight to Nokia phones. The only thing that would be more shocking is if Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone were going with Silverlight instead of Flash. […]

  5. Well, they are abandoning Symbian for their high-end models as well, but it won’t do the day. Nothing is going to beat OS X as a mobile OS. They are smoked.

  6. Well, they are abandoning Symbian for their high-end models as well, but it won’t do the day. Nothing is going to beat OS X as a mobile OS. They are smoked.

  7. I suspect Microsoft greased the wheels here by offering to do most of the development but even without that I don’t find this shocking.

    From Nokia’s perspective I think Apple is a big threat to them and Android has the potential to be just as bad. Since Apple and Google seem to be in bed together Nokia’s best move is to reach out to the other major player as a stop gap (the enemy of my enemy is my friend). That’s how you get this alliance.

    What I find interesting about this is that Adobe now becomes the wildcard. They can support both sides or tip the scale one way or the other. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the tech industry it’s that there are very few secrets. Adobe had to know about this and the Google Gears announcement well in advance and they almost certainly have a mobile strategy of their own mapped out.

  8. I suspect Microsoft greased the wheels here by offering to do most of the development but even without that I don’t find this shocking.

    From Nokia’s perspective I think Apple is a big threat to them and Android has the potential to be just as bad. Since Apple and Google seem to be in bed together Nokia’s best move is to reach out to the other major player as a stop gap (the enemy of my enemy is my friend). That’s how you get this alliance.

    What I find interesting about this is that Adobe now becomes the wildcard. They can support both sides or tip the scale one way or the other. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the tech industry it’s that there are very few secrets. Adobe had to know about this and the Google Gears announcement well in advance and they almost certainly have a mobile strategy of their own mapped out.

  11. “The only thing that would be more shocking is if Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone were going with Silverlight instead of Flash.”

    I’ll put down a fiver that Silverlight will never appear on the iPhone.* Apparently an Adobe source (unamed and rumored) has mentioned that Flash is on its way to the iPhone.

    * Not with Apple’s co-operation. If the impending iPhone SDK allows it, then never becomes possible.

  12. “The only thing that would be more shocking is if Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone were going with Silverlight instead of Flash.”

    I’ll put down a fiver that Silverlight will never appear on the iPhone.* Apparently an Adobe source (unamed and rumored) has mentioned that Flash is on its way to the iPhone.

    * Not with Apple’s co-operation. If the impending iPhone SDK allows it, then never becomes possible.

  13. Why are Nokia going for Silverlight?

    Because they don’t know squat about web yet web is part of their big new strategy. I bet Microsoft threw a ton of money at wining & dining them, and ultimately offered a very attractive deal. MS badly need some Silverlight success stories… United through mutual desperation.

  14. Why are Nokia going for Silverlight?

    Because they don’t know squat about web yet web is part of their big new strategy. I bet Microsoft threw a ton of money at wining & dining them, and ultimately offered a very attractive deal. MS badly need some Silverlight success stories… United through mutual desperation.

  15. I’d think that one key issue here is the Microsoft’s global content delivery network providing “highly distributed, low latency, high scale delivery of Silverlight apps and media”.
    [http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/ozzie/04-30-07MIX.mspx]
    So, Nokia can tap into, and build on that infrastructure.

  16. I’d think that one key issue here is the Microsoft’s global content delivery network providing “highly distributed, low latency, high scale delivery of Silverlight apps and media”.
    [http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/ozzie/04-30-07MIX.mspx]
    So, Nokia can tap into, and build on that infrastructure.

  17. Oh god, never buying nokia again.

    Sorry guys, I avoid M$ like the plague and you made the wrong decision, so now accept the consequences of market backlash.

    And please don’t whine, we just don’t buy nokia, period.

  18. Oh god, never buying nokia again.

    Sorry guys, I avoid M$ like the plague and you made the wrong decision, so now accept the consequences of market backlash.

    And please don’t whine, we just don’t buy nokia, period.

  23. It must pain the ‘softies greatly to write software that runs on something other than Windows.

    You can be sure that Nokia will be “encouraged” to switch to WinCE for all their phones, and that Silverlight for non-WinCE will be quietly dropped the moment they do.

  24. It must pain the ‘softies greatly to write software that runs on something other than Windows.

    You can be sure that Nokia will be “encouraged” to switch to WinCE for all their phones, and that Silverlight for non-WinCE will be quietly dropped the moment they do.

  27. It’ll be interesting to see how the decisions are made about the hosting of Silverlight/Flash/Air on specific devices/platforms. What will be the factor that makes an organisation decide one way or the other? Will any of it be relevent in 18 months time when the battle has been won or is there no war to be had?

  28. It’ll be interesting to see how the decisions are made about the hosting of Silverlight/Flash/Air on specific devices/platforms. What will be the factor that makes an organisation decide one way or the other? Will any of it be relevent in 18 months time when the battle has been won or is there no war to be had?

  29. That last line about iPhone supporting Silverlight made me laugh more so hard :) Thanks for that!

  30. That last line about iPhone supporting Silverlight made me laugh more so hard :) Thanks for that!

  32. It would be very interesting to know if porting of Silverlight to Nokia Internet tablets means that they will do version of Silverlight for Linux. Most of Nokia’s Internet tablets use version based on Maemo (that is a Debian-based development platform for handheld devices, as Wikipedia says).

    It could be interesting to see if Microsoft is widening it’s support to have allow cross-platform applications easily made that could run on both Windows and Linux (in addition to other platforms).

  33. It would be very interesting to know if porting of Silverlight to Nokia Internet tablets means that they will do version of Silverlight for Linux. Most of Nokia’s Internet tablets use version based on Maemo (that is a Debian-based development platform for handheld devices, as Wikipedia says).

    It could be interesting to see if Microsoft is widening it’s support to have allow cross-platform applications easily made that could run on both Windows and Linux (in addition to other platforms).

  34. Not surprised because i knew a little about what is going on, and people seem to forget that nokia was also the one to get a mobile live suite in a phone even before WM had it.

    Nokia and Microsoft working together for initiatives is nothing rare now.

    along money Microsoft wants to convince Nokia to do a High End WM device just like all the other big phone companies by offering Silverlight, full exchange support, a new mobile live suite and there are even rumors of a post of the latest mobile office (6.1) to nokia.

    silverlight would be the third thing that materializes from these four in one form or another, so there is only one to go and nokia pushing it into a broader scope.

    Silverlight in the iphone?, yes i would say it should happen this year too.

    For those that still doubt about Silverlight getting adoption, i must remind you that the Olympics advanced online content will be exclusive to Silverlight and that this Olympics will be the most watched online even in all history up till now?

  35. Not surprised because i knew a little about what is going on, and people seem to forget that nokia was also the one to get a mobile live suite in a phone even before WM had it.

    Nokia and Microsoft working together for initiatives is nothing rare now.

    along money Microsoft wants to convince Nokia to do a High End WM device just like all the other big phone companies by offering Silverlight, full exchange support, a new mobile live suite and there are even rumors of a post of the latest mobile office (6.1) to nokia.

    silverlight would be the third thing that materializes from these four in one form or another, so there is only one to go and nokia pushing it into a broader scope.

    Silverlight in the iphone?, yes i would say it should happen this year too.

    For those that still doubt about Silverlight getting adoption, i must remind you that the Olympics advanced online content will be exclusive to Silverlight and that this Olympics will be the most watched online even in all history up till now?

  44. […] Scoble raises a fun question on whether Steve Jobs would pick Silverlight for the iPhone. Might not be so far from the truth if you look at this article and his view of Flash on the iPhone: Turning back to the iPhone, don’t expect support for Adobe’s Flash technology anytime soon. The full-blown PC Flash version "performs too slow to be useful" on the iPhone, and a mobile version called Flash Lite "is not capable of being used with the Web," Jobs said. Without an option that falls in between, it sounds like Flash is not going to be supported on the iPhone until the performance of the underlying hardware improves. […]

  55. Silverlight, Flash or Android? That is the question.

    As a developer, I would rather develop for Silverlight because .Net allows me to use any language I choose (IronPython is my favorite). .Net’s multi-language support works today and works well.

    Flash is my next choice, because it is very well entrenched almost everywhere and AVM2 has a decent API. Actionscript/Javascript is a decent language, but it definitely loses out to being able to choose whatever language you want. In fact, it is Actionscript/Flash/Flex that I am learning and planning to deploy on right now because I am still waiting for Silverlight to mature.

    Android would be my last choice, I find its design to be a rather uninspired clobbering together of existing technologies. Don’t let the “Google” branding fool you, Google’s only real success so far has been its search engine. Even Gmail still trails Yahoo significantly.

    Yahoo in fact has a lot more interesting technologies than Gmail (example their widget technology and YUI) that just don’t get much press.

  56. Silverlight, Flash or Android? That is the question.

    As a developer, I would rather develop for Silverlight because .Net allows me to use any language I choose (IronPython is my favorite). .Net’s multi-language support works today and works well.

    Flash is my next choice, because it is very well entrenched almost everywhere and AVM2 has a decent API. Actionscript/Javascript is a decent language, but it definitely loses out to being able to choose whatever language you want. In fact, it is Actionscript/Flash/Flex that I am learning and planning to deploy on right now because I am still waiting for Silverlight to mature.

    Android would be my last choice, I find its design to be a rather uninspired clobbering together of existing technologies. Don’t let the “Google” branding fool you, Google’s only real success so far has been its search engine. Even Gmail still trails Yahoo significantly.

    Yahoo in fact has a lot more interesting technologies than Gmail (example their widget technology and YUI) that just don’t get much press.

  57. Make that “Yahoo in fact has a lot more interesting technologies than Google…”

  58. Make that “Yahoo in fact has a lot more interesting technologies than Google…”