Microsoft have announced this week that the Live Mesh framework is being made available to third party developers, and has been demonstrated this week by the BBC’s Anthony Rose.

A Silverlight-powered desktop tool synchronises BBC content downloaded on to one PC with any device on the user’s Mesh network, including Macs and mobile phones.

“When I take out my cell phone, the programme has already been synched,” Rose said. “And when I press the play button on my smartphone, it automatically picks up from where I left off [on the PC].”

Doctor Who on my mobile?

Silverlight is set to be supported on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, and the move looks set to pave the way for Silverlight to be an unforgettable experience, with the Flash Lite adoption tuning PDA users into the benefits of streamlined rich mobile content.

To get an idea of how far behind Microsoft are in the mobile market, this release should put it into perspective for you – Apple have made massive inroads with their iPhone, overtaking Motorola with 2.3m shipments in Q4 of 2007 from nowhere on the same period in 2007. Nokia hold 18.8m shipments, however, with Blackberry masters RIM on 4m.

Microsoft hold a portion of the 8m other shipments; which bearing in mind how much more useful and adaptable Windows Mobile is over the Blackberry, is a bit of a concern for the worlds largest domestic software maker.