In a move to improve the potential success of both Silverlight and Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft has announce that Silverlight would be supported on that mobile platform when it ships.

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that its RTM'd Windows Embedded platform incorporates Silverlight 3 as an app runtime, not just a media player. On Wednesday, Intel announced it is supporting Silverlight 3 to run on its Atom-based devices, running both Windows 7 and Linux.

Microsoft has already announced Silverlight support on the Xbox 360 on some Nokia phones. And Windows Mobile 7, the software giant's next phone operating system, will come with Silverlight 3, said Brian Goldfarb, a marketing director for Microsoft's Silverlight team.

"We are 100 percent dedicated to seeing Silverlight across all three screens – PC, TV and mobile," he said.

The previous Silverlight versions were focused on media, Goldfarb said. Microsoft is hoping Silverlight 3, on the other hand, catches on as a platform for third-party application development.

"We look at Silverlight as a sort of comprehensive runtime platform," he said.
Silverlight 3 is a "cross-browser, cross-platform, cross-device solution," Goldfarb said.

This is one of the few forward-looking moves to come out of Redmond in quite a while.

In fact, I am still surprised that (Microsoft’s) MSN properties still ask me - daily, I might add – to install Flash player before the page loads. It is particularly galling when Tier-1 MSN partners such as foxsports.com require it, or kill your page load times.

Microsoft needs to seed Silverlight as an integral part of its operating systems, and make sure everyone has it from the get-go, obviating the need for a download.

What I would like to see more off is out-of-browser Silverlight apps, such as the excellent blu app from thirteen23.com.

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Initial link from The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Microsoft Blog.