Gone in a Flash
Silverlight has only ever had, at best, 65% penetration on the desktop and minimal mobile presence, meaning that developers using it were writing for a smaller audience, compared with Flash and Java. So, it is not much of a surprise to find that Silverlight's fifth release happened with more of a nudge out the door than an explosive presentation like the early versions.
However, if Windows Phones take off, then there is still a future for Silverlight, along with Expression and Visual Studio, to create applications for that growing user base. The new version offers plenty of features for both desktop web use and mobile app development.
Learning Opportunities
Webinar
Mar
21
Ready to Level Up Your Learning? Discover Your Learning Maturity Score
Learn how to level up your learning program in this free, interactive workshop
Webinar
Mar
29
The CX Commute vs. the CX Joy Ride
Is your CX traffic holding up your customer's journey?
Webinar
Mar
29
Is Your Microsoft 365 Data Recoverable? How to Survive the IT Hotseat When Data is Lost
See why MIcrosoft recommends third party backup
Webinar
Mar
30
An Optimized Customer Contact Strategy Combines Transparency and Intelligence: The State of Outbound Communications
Learn from the Neustar-commissioned Forrester Consulting study on challenges and solutions for contact centers
Conference
May
10
CMSWire CONNECT Customer Experience Conference - Austin 2023
Don't miss the top customer experience and digital experience conference of the year — live in Austin, Texas May 10-12.
Conference
May
10
Reworked CONNECT Employee Experience & Digital Workplace Conference Austin 2023
North America's best employee experience and digital workplace conference of the year — live in Austin May 10-12, 2023.
Feature-Rich
New features in Silverlight 5 include hardware GPU decoding of H.264 media, plus an improved graphics stack with 3D support in Windows with GPU access to draw vertex shaders and low-level 3D primitives, for gaming-class graphics within the browser. It also adds the a secure "trusted app" model to the browser.
Those features help keep it on a vague par with HTML 5, which Microsoft is happily supporting in its new browsers, but the lack the shouting "look-at-me" news and Microsoft's silence about its plans beyond this version suggest that Silverlight has a limited future.