Here's a little bit of surprise: Microsoft has just released an application for the iPhone. Called Seadragon Mobile, the program is supposed to allow users to easily and smoothly browse and manipulate large numbers of hi-res images on their Apple smartphone. So the technology should enable users to, for example, zoom in and out of the details on a detailed map with little if any lag time between views.

According to Microsoft's Live Labs:

The aim of Seadragon is nothing less than to change the way we use screens, from wall-sized displays all the way down to cell phones, so that graphics and photos are smoothly browsed, regardless of the amount of data or the bandwidth of the network.

It's already available on a number of platforms, including Microsoft Surface, and in Photosynth and Silverlight. Now we're bringing that same graphical smoothness right to the iPhone in your pocket.

Consider the following four "promises" of Seadragon:

1. Speed of navigation is independent of the size or number of objects.
2. Performance depends only on the ratio of bandwidth to pixels on the screen.
3. Transitions are smooth as butter.
4. Scaling is near perfect and rapid for screens of any resolution

See here to download and learn more about Seadragon Mobile for iPhone.  You can also check out this Silverlight video depicting Seadragon to see the technology in action.

You have to wonder why Microsoft didn't take Seadragon mobile on Windows Mobile first. After all, its own mobile-device platform is under heavy threat from the likes of Apple with the iPhone, Google with Android and RIM with BlackBerry right now. While it isn't going to disappear anytime soon, it wouldn't have hurt Windows Mobile's prospects to have been the mobile platform to demonstrate this technological advancement first. Right?