In an effort to make its Silverlight technology as ubiquitous as its competitor Flash, Microsoft is moving full speed ahead to promote its adoption through some partnerships, including a deal with Nokia to make the cross-platform browser plug-in available on Nokia’s S60 smartphones running Symbian OS, as well as on S40 devices and internet tablets.

This is a big deal for Microsoft given Nokia’s phones, and specifically those running the S60 software platform, have a dominant place in the market with more than 53% market share of the 35.5 million smartphones shipped in Q4 2007. That said, Nokia is not backing Microsoft exclusively, having signed a similar deal with Adobe for Flash Lite last year. Microsoft will be demonstrating Silverlight on S60 during a keynote at its MIX08 conference on March 5 in Las Vegas, with a developers’ kit reportedly “intended” to be available later this year.