Microsoft and Nokia will team up to bring Silverlight’s rich, interactive applications to Nokia’s S60 software platform (the world’s leading software platform), as well as to the Series 40 devices and Nokia Internet tablets, the two companies announced on Tuesday.

Lee Williams, Senior Vice President in Nokia’s Devices software organization said: “Today’s consumers are very clear in what they want: easy access to tightly integrated services and data on any device […] By working with Microsoft, we are creating terrific opportunities and additional choices for the development community, S60 licensees and the industry as a hole.”

Silverlight was officially launched in September last year as a cross-platform Web browser plug-in meant to catch up with Adobe’s Flash Player's already huge advance on the market. So far, organizations such as Entertainment Tonight, the NBA and NBC Universal chose Silverlight to deliver superior Web-based experiences to their customers.

Adobe closed a deal with Nokia just last year for the Flash Lite player. How the announcement of Microsoft-Nokia collaboration will affect Flash Lite’s market share still remains to be seen. Adobe chose not to respond to Nokia and Microsoft’s announcement.

Nokia chose Microsoft to deliver next-generation media experiences and rich interactive applications to their customers, making the platform available for millions of S60, Series 40 devices and Nokia Internet tablets.

“This is an important relationship on so many levels,” said S. Somasegar, Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Developer Division. “This is a significant step in gaining broad acceptance for Silverlight and ensuring it is platform agnostic.”

Microsoft plans a demonstration of the Silverlight on S60 during the opening keynote at the March 05 MIX08 conference in Las Vegas. Silverlight will become available to S60 developers later this year, while the availability for Nokia Series 40 and Nokia Internet tablets are to be confirmed later on.