Microsoft SilverLight turns out to be a winner!
After releasing Microsoft Internet Explorer 8’s beta, I got the option of viewing the Microsoft Download Center’s beta version too! This one’s powered by SilverLight and no doubt it looks pretty impressive. The effects are cool and any new user of the computers will just feel as if they are looking at website which is based on Adobe’s Flash!
In the recent news Apple decided that iPhone won’t have Adobe’s Flash any more and it may be a wonderful opportunity for Microsoft to ensure that SilverLight gets installed on iPhones.
Microsoft has already bagged the deal with Nokia which now officially supports Microsoft SilverLight and considering the market share of Nokia in mobile phones, no one will doubt the upcoming tough competition between SilverLight and Flash.
The war between Microsoft and Adobe seems to be growing at a pretty fast rate and it will be interesting to see that how Adobe re-ensures the inclusion of Flash on iPhones.
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Sumesh
March 7th, 2008 at 9:20 am #
Its time there were alternatives to Flash. Any domination is bad, as we all know too well in case of M$. Silverlight has not taken off for desktop, but is starting to spread in mobile phones – would we see another digital divide in terms of technology used?
ReviewSaurus
March 8th, 2008 at 11:27 am #
@ Sumesh : Same here! It’ll be cool to have SilverLight as the competition to Flash. I’m sure SilverLight will take off for desktop too. Robert Scoble has mentioned somewhere in his blog that many of his twitter followers suggest that silverlight is easy as far as developement goes. So, chances of digital divide seem pretty low and chances of bigger and better competition seems pretty high
Sharkboy
November 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am #
I have been doing a research paper at work comparing the Adobe Stack (Flash, Flex, Air) to Silverlight. I would have to say that so far the Microsoft is well ahead of the game. If you are a .Net shop as many companies are, Silverlight is a no brainer. The ability for desiners and developers to work together while keeping everything clean is great.
I think once Flex developers see how more flexible Silverlight is and how much more you can do with it, you will start to see more apps popping up.
The difficult thing will be finding Designers who know Blend. The best bet will be to hire and train. Once you get over the learning curve, the productivity gain will more then compinsate for the ramp up period.
One thing I am hoping that they add is support for Silverlight to capture Video and Audio from the client PC. This is something availble in Flash that is very useful.
I will be uploading some new Silverlight code to my site soon. My site is a Music Collaboration site that allows musicians from around the world to work on tunes together. I have sound mixers and other media apps that members can use.