Microsoft, the company behind Windows Mobile, has released an application for the rival iPhone. Seadragon Mobile allows users to view images with giga-pixel resolutions. This application has been created to allow users easily to zoom in on the details of very high-resolution images, such as a map. It makes use of the iPhone’s multi-touch capabilities, so users can zoom in or out on an image by tapping or pinching their fingers. Seadragon Mobile is available for free on the iTunes App Store.

The first question many are asking is “Why is Microsoft releasing an application for the iPhone and not Windows Mobile?” The answer comes from Alex Daley, a group product manager for Microsoft Live Labs, who told TechFlash: “Most phones out today don’t have accelerated graphics in them. The iPhone does, and so it enabled us to do something that has been previously difficult to do.” For one, while it is a nice app - if not the most exciting in the world - you’d think Microsoft could better utilise the time and money of its development teams by getting Windows Mobile and applications for that up to speed. Secondly, Seadragon Mobile is completely free which is a great deal for iPhone owners but why can’t it show the same love and devotion to its own customers?!

I am not even sure why this Microsoft iPhone app is news worthy or even worth mentioning. Microsoft making software for Apple hardware is nothing new. They make Office for the Mac and for quite a while Internet Explorer. After they acquired Connectix, they continued Virtual PC for the Mac until the Apple started using Intel chips.

Does the iPhone really need this application? i think there is already a software for it.