Nokia and Microsoft make friends while Apple unleashes the iPhone SDK

It's time once again to pay our beloved sister site Pocket Picks a visit to catch up on what's been going on in the world of mobile technology and while there hasn't been a flood of stories, those that have appeared have been pretty big news.

Our first stop is CeBIT in Hanover, Germany where Nokia unveiled two new carrier locked devices, the 6124 Classic and the 6650, with the former having the higher specs of the two. Both are being aimed at mid-level users rather than gadget hungry technophiles and providing a compelling indication of where the new yardstick for mid-level handsets will lie technology-wise as the industry marches relentlessly towards bigger, better, faster and more.

Sony Ericsson was also on hand to make an unveiling of its own with the style-focused T303 slider. Unfortunately the T303 isn't as progressive specs-wise though it is bound to be cheap as chips when it is launched later this year.

There was consternation surrounding Sony Ericsson's flagship Xperia X1 handset however with rumours surfacing suggesting that it is to be delayed until 2009. Any such fears were soon put to rest however as Sony Ericsson's corporate vice president of global communications, Aldo Ligouri, made a statement confirming that the device will launch this year.

Back into the Nokia camp and there was an unexpected announcement that the handset giant is set to partner with Microsoft in order to bring the latter's Silverlight internet platform to Nokia handsets as an alternative to Adobe's Flash Lite platform in order to deliver rich internet content.

Adobe was dealt a second blow from Apple's Steve Jobs later in the week, as the Apple CEO confirmed that he is looking for alternatives to Flash Lite for the iPhone due to limitations intrinsic in the platform.

The biggest news this week however was undoubtedly about the Apple iPhone/iPod touch SDK. Along with full Microsoft Exchange support, Apple's mobile devices are set to get some high profile games, such as EA's Spore, as well as a specific wireless download channel for all third party applications.

Good news indeed and it provides the potential to give the S60 crowd something to be jealous about. And on that bombshell, we shall retire for another seven days worth of mobile news gathering which we will deliver here next week, same time, same place. Click 'Track It!' to be sure not to miss it.