Trolltech, the Linux-based cross-platform OS software house that Nokia acquired for €104 back in January, have announced yet another supported OS for its Qt development framework; as of Qt version 4.4, set to be available this coming May, Windows CE compatibility will be added to the list.  That means that applications created using Qt - which is Windows, Mac and Linux compatible - can be loaded without alteration onto Windows CE and Windows Mobile devices, among the others Trolltech supports.  It’s another sign that the company is approaching the aim of “write once, run anywhere” that Sun intended its own Java platform to satisfy.

Trolltech licence Qt in both commercial and GPL versions, depending on the developer, and the platform is used by more than 5,000 customers and features in Skype, Photoshop Elements and Google Earth.  Many analysts saw Nokia’s buy-out of the company as a direct challenge to Android; the Trolltech Qtopia OS for mobile devices has already featured on cellphones, set-top boxes and media players.