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Breaking: Silverlight now on 60% of Internet-connected devices
At MIX10 they are currently bragging about Silverlight's superior video quality and its ability, when combined with Microsoft IIS's smooth streaming technology, to deliver 720p content to millions of people during the Olympics. They've also just announced Silverlight 4, and with it some seriously juicy features:
- Webcam & microphone support -- Chatroulette will be prettier... woo
- Multicast streaming -- if you don't know what this is... it's big news!
- Drag-and-drop -- Ebay are demonstrating an app that lets you drag images from the desktop into a new item listing, very cool
- Offline DRM, trusted offline applications -- you're going to see apps that work on Windows Phone 7 devices and PCs... and anything with Silverlight installed, basically. Goodbye, Adobe AIR.
- Full Visual Studio integration for Silverlight development -- WYSIWYG, and so on. Hooray!
Now they're onto Pivot, which Erez has already reviewed...
Update: Silverlight 4 Beta RC is now available to download.
Comments
18
Subscribe to commentsBrian!Mar 15th 2010 12:58PM
I really think that the new Windows Phone OS might lightly rocket Silverlight into the mainstream.
I have always scoffed at "Flash Killers" in the past. But this is going to become a thorn in Adobe's side. Of course, the collective suite of tools to develop for Flash are more refined for Adobe. Even in Silverlight you sort of need Photoshop.
r3loadedMar 15th 2010 1:34PM
Sounds great, I'm currently teaching myself a bit of Silverlight development - the possibility of creating a Silverlight app that works on devices as well as the web is awesome.
Wayne BMar 15th 2010 2:43PM
Microsoft really knows how to make excellent developer tools. Working with Silverlight is so much nicer than working with Flash.
Research SilverlightOneMar 15th 2010 5:08PM
A research paper provided by DiscountASP.NET (Windows platform hosting and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner) shows an average of 16% of its clients use Silverlight to power their web sites, compared to an average of 21% of web sites hosted at the company using Flash.
Read more here:
http://www.silverlightone.com/blog/2010/03/silverlight-is-closing-its-gap-with-flash-in-windows-hosting-platform.html
BenMar 15th 2010 7:22PM
Oh man, silverlight 4 is on it's way! Remind me what version moonlight is currently on?
EvilPoliticiansMar 15th 2010 8:22PM
Keeping it off my PC. Every app that requires a new version of this or that to be installed from M$ adds to the overhead and upkeep. No thanks. I can't wait to uninstall one video editor that insists on VB.NET and SQL server. Too many things to keep secure with updates every other day.
JamesMar 16th 2010 12:42AM
What was it that the Pwn To Own dude said? I think it was "Just don't install Flash", right? Microsoft is not the only big target in the industry, you know.
DeoWulfMar 15th 2010 9:01PM
60%, but they can't be bothered to let the Zune in.
HylicMar 16th 2010 12:18AM
I believe that it ships with most new computers bundled with windows/IE8, so it it's large increase in market penetration shouldn't be so "startling".
BrJohnMar 16th 2010 12:38AM
Hylic,
Good try, unfortunately that is not true. Silverlight is currently only available as a download add-on or plug-in for all popular browsers. It is not being bundled with Windows/IE8. If it were, it would be close to 80% penetration by now. Please don't comment without recklessly and without knowing anything about Silverlight.
HylicMar 16th 2010 1:19AM
I meant to reply to my post, but instead accidentally posted a reply to the main thread.
HylicMar 16th 2010 1:17AM
I actually don't have anything against Silverlight, and I don't see how from my comment you can in anyway derive how much knowledge I have about Silverlight.
As for my comment, recently I got a new computer with Windows 7 , and it has Silverlight installed. Now I'm fairly certain that I never downloaded it so I assumed that it came preinstalled. However it is possible that i'm mistaken and I either installed (maybe as an optional update through windows update) or while my computer came with it preinstalled that may have been done by the vendor I got my computer from and is not being bundled by Microsoft .My comment was based on what I believed to be the case, based on my own personal experience.
That said I don't see why your so sure that the percentage would be so much higher if it came bundled together with windows.What percentage of current "internet enabled devices"do you think are actauly new (windows) computers?
JamusMar 16th 2010 9:26AM
I simply do not want another ad-pushing tech. How soon do you think it will be before it hits enough market penetration that Silverlight-based ads will be hogging your browser along with Flash-based ones?
Not to mention for whatever reason, no matter how many times I click, "Do not show this update again", the Silverlight download ALWAYS comes back in Windows Update. Combine that with how sneakily Microsoft pushed Silverlight installs on their home page (as we have all seen, most users will click on ANYTHING) and I have no doubt that it is pretty widespread right now. I just don't think those numbers are actually because people really want it. I just think it ended up on their computers.
DanMar 16th 2010 10:12AM
Re: "And, most importantly, Silverlight 4 will let you watch full-screen videos on one screen, and use your other screens without minimizing the video!"
So? I've been doing this for the past 6 months on my Asus Eee 1000 running Eeebuntu Linux with either flash, avi or DVDs via VLC.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 16th 2010 1:14PM
That doesn't sound like you're in the web browser when you do that... :P
NickMay 14th 2010 6:18AM
Hang on a sec... did someone say 60%. Where are they pulling this figure from? We operate high-end e-commerce booking engines and track thousands of new visitors a week who spend large amounts of money with us. They are mostly home vistiors but also incude corporate visitors. For May 2010 so far, Silverlight installation and activation is sitting on 32%. I think this 60% is a marketing ploy or they are only using stats from websites which developers frequent (eg their own website). I am a .NET developer so not knocking Microsoft. Just wish they would be realistic with their stats and explain their sources.
Sebastian AnthonyMay 14th 2010 6:50AM
Thanks for the info.
As with most marketing things... we'll probably never know what the real figure is -- it's not like the real figure is easily divinable anyway :)
NickMay 17th 2010 6:53PM
Well this is a little embarrasing.... I was viewing an incorrect statistics figure and the install rate is actually 83.5% of all users that hit our sites. Wow. Spoke too soon above. Though 92% are sitting with Silverlight 3 for now. Looks like Silverlight is back on the possible technology list.