Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. program manager Abu Obeida has confirmed that the Windows 8 "Metro" style theme for JQuery Mobile will now be available on the GitHub web-based hosting service.

This Metro connection to the JQuery Mobile open source mobile user interface framework means that HTML5 pages will be able to automatically adapt to the Metro design style when rendered on Windows Phone 7.5 devices.

Writing under the MSDN's "interoperability @ Microsoft" banner, Obeida specifies that the new Metro style theme's development was sponsored by Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. working closely with Sergei Grebnov, an Apache Cordova committer and jQuery Mobile developer.

"The CSS and JavaScript theme adapts to the current theme used in Windows Phone and applies the right styling to the jQuery Mobile controls. This allows mobile HTML5 websites and hybrid applications to naturally integrate into the Windows Phone Metro style experience. This offers developers the choice of integrating the theme into their existing application and also to contribute to this open source project through GitHub," said Microsoft's Obeida.

The Microsoft PR machine is keen to list this development as "another community engagement milestone" and says that its team has been working closely with the Windows Phone division to support the mobile HTML5 and JavaScript open source communities over the last year.

"We believe it is important for developers to have choices when targeting Windows Phone, and we also want them to be able to deliver a good experience to the users of their applications, especially when making the choice of using web standards (HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript) to target multiple mobile platforms by picking solutions such as Apache Cordova," says Obeida.

Microsoft reminds us that developers can already enjoy a selection of Apache Cordova Plugins to give their application a Windows Phone touch such as Social Share, Bing Map launcher, and Live Tile.