14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday at the MIX10 conference, Redmond-based software company Microsoft released a beta version of the Silverlight code for Symbian, a move that was already expected to be made a few weeks ago, two years after Microsoft and Nokia announced a partnership in the area. The beta version of the solution is now available for Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition) handsets, offering them the possibility to load content in the web browser or to run Silverlight apps on the handset.
“Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform implementation of the .NET Framework for building media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web on desktop computers, is also available for Nokia S60 5th Edition devices such as Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 Mini. Silverlight includes a runtime that is optimized to display content on memory-constrained devices,” is what Microsoft states about the beta version of Silverlight for Symbian.
It seems that the Silverlight for Symbian solution is only in an early beta version for the time being, and that it still lacks some features, though it comes with a series of platform specific limitations (including input methods, media codecs and controls), a recent post on All About Symbian notes. Even so, Microsoft says that developers can create Silverlight-based applications for devices by using Expression Blend 2, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1, or Visual Studio 2008 SP1 with Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1. These solutions are available for developers of Windows Phone 7 applications too.
At the same time, Microsoft also notes that the release comes with support for application deployment on IIS, and announced a series of resources that are now available for those developers interested in using Silverlight to build applications for the Symbian platform. These resources are also meant to offer developers the possibility to convert desktop applications to run on a mobile phone powered by Symbian, the company states. Additional details on the matter, as well as on the development tools Microsoft has just put in place, are available here.