Microsoft’s “Flash-killer,” Silverlight released the third version of its rich media application platform, Silverlight 3, on the web yesterday. This morning, Microsoft is holding the official launch of Silverlight 3, which is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering media experiences and interactive applications for the Web. The first version was launched in 2007 and the second version was launched in September of 2008. In April, Microsoft reported 300 million downloads of Silverlight between September 2007 and April 2009, with an estimated 300,000 developers and engineers working off the Silverlight platform. The beta of Silverlight 3 was launched earlier this year.
Now Microsoft is taking the beta off, and rolling out the full-fledged version of Silverlight 3 to the public. We had the opportunity to speak to Director of Microsoft’s Development Platform Group, Brian Goldfarb, about the new features of Silverlight 3 and the strategies behind the development of the new product. We also were able to talk to Scott Guthrie, vice president in the Microsoft’s Developer Division, on camera about his perspective on the significance of Silverlight 3 and its potential to takeover main competitor Adobe’s Flash (see video below). We’ve been able to compile a complete guide to SIlverlight 3 with all of its new features and the customers and developers who are using these features to launch innovative products. And Microsoft will also be demoing some of the real-time capabilities of Silverlight 3 at TechCrunch’s Real-Time Stream CrunchUp today.
Microsoft says that one of the main strategies that drove the development of Silverlight 3 was the focus on creating a technology and a set of efficient tools that bring design and development together in a rich media experience for the consumer that could be used across different platforms (browser and desktop) and across different browsers. Here are all of the new features of Silverlight 3, Expression Suite (a suite of tools for designers and developers), and the customers which are using the new product to enhance their media experiences.
1. Smooth Streaming: Microsoft says its new streaming feature improves the quality of streaming video on the browser so that it compares to watching video on television. Smooth Streaming on the backend is basically an encoding that lets you break the file up into smaller chunks that are easier to move and stream to an application. As a user, you’ll experience HD video playback of content if your bandwith is high. If a user’s bandwidth is below 3 Mbps, Smooth Streaming’s dynamic capabilities will kick in. Basically Silverlight is evaluating how much CPU and bandwith your computer and network has and makes dynamic calculations on the optimal place where the video should stream and acts accordingly, allowing for limited buffering. This streaming feature was used to stream Michael Jackson’s memorial service on MSN and to stream Wimbledon live on the web.
2. Digital Rights Management: Silverlight 3 comes with increased protection of content for businesses using the platform to stream or publish content. Studio and content owners have greater abilities to monitor and protect content from being distributed.
3. Immersive Experiences: Silverlight 3 comes with a few innovative capabilities for developers to harness, including th ability to have a deep zoom into images and an experience, almost making users feel like they are on a virtual ride. I demoed the deep zoom capability that’s currently being used on the Hard Rock Cafe’s site to portray music memorabilia in it’s different restaurants. Silverlight 3 also has a more powerful 3-D technology.
4. Out Of The Browser: Silverlight has been a browser based technology since its launch in 2007, but this ends with the new release. Microsoft has now given developers the ability to build applications on Silverlight that can be viewed in the browser and on the desktop. One of the potential apps that can be built off of Facebook was debuted by Microsoft at the social network’s technology tasting a few months ago, and we thought it was impressive.
5. Expression Studio 3 and Sketchflow: Expression Studio is Microsoft’s set of tools that lets designers and developers build high quality applications off of Silverlight. Expression Studio 3 is launching with a new tool, called Sketchflow, which will basically enable the creation and implementation of fully functional prototypes. So a napkin sketch can become a reality, and can be animated and used by designers and developers.
6. The Push Towards Enterprise: Goldfarb says that Microsoft is making a a significant effort to show businesses that Silverlight can also be used internally to host and support rich media applications. For example, Continental Airlines is using Silverlight as the foundation for their call center application for employees who are taking reservations and supplying information.
Besides the examples mentioned above, Silverlight has been able to make some big deals in the live streaming space, including the Bejing Olympics, the Presidential Inauguration and for Netflix.Is Silverlight 3 a Flash-killer? Probably not, but Silverlight’s new features, especially its dynamic streaming capabilities (which Adobe has its own version of) and the innovative technologies that are being offered to developers and designers certainly may keep the product neck in neck with Flash.
Graet. More competition and gives Flash a run for their money. But who can beat the Flash? He suppose to be fast?
It is always premature to say that who can beat Flash. Silverlight is targeting all Flash can do and a lot more. For all the .NET Developers it is a great tool and they don’t have to learn the nitty gritties of Action Scripting. The great thing about Silverlight is that it already has a huge developer support in the form of .NET Developers.
I believe SL has the potential to be a very important part of the overall Web Development with it not being used just for Media, Animation or Streaming but even in creating next generation UI which talks constantly to Databases and update information.
We will see a lot of developments in SL for areas like Stock Tickers, Score Updates and a lot of similar areas.
Ugh.
The irony of you posting a Flash video touting the benefits of Silverlight is not lost on me.
Heheheh
That says it all.
Good point. It should have used silverlight instead. But flash is still widely used in general.
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Neither flash nor silverlight require you to restart your PC after installation.
Silverlight doesn’t even require you to restart the browser; you just need to reload the page.
I think you are missing the point. This is hosted on Youtube.
If MS wants to reach broad audience on youtube, they do need to publish it in Flash.
Silverlight’s competition is AIR, not Flash.
Actually it’s both. SL can run OOB if necessary but doesn’t have to.
I would agree with that to a degree but Flash is now “a platform” with a push to build robust apps, they have been pushing that hard the last couple years with Air and Flex. Silverlight is skipping the timeline based BS that flash started with and is going directly after what Flash is now trying to target.
At the end of the day if Silverlight desktop apps have an advantage over Air apps and Flex apps because of their relationship with the OS I can see adobe at a disadvantage that could potential entice people to build the next gen apps (cloud) with SL.
I’ve developed apps in both Flash and Silverlight and like both for different reasons. Flash is great for hammering out quick animations and effects and also has a robust architecture for building complicated apps. SL has excellent video streaming capabilities and now SketchFlow to mock projects is a big plus. Blend 2 was a bit clunky, but Blend 3 is very nice. It depends on what you’re building, but SL has come a long way in a short amount of time. For the enterprise SL is definitely better. For small shops, Flash will likely continue to be the better option. Either way it’s good to see competition driving innovation.
It’s hard to get exciting about yet-another-proprietary format when the open web race is heating up.
I haven’t come across anything that compelled me to install Silverlight on the Mac yet. Deep zoom? Unless it’s got a 3D component I haven’t seen, that works just fine in HTML (and Microsoft’s own Deep Zoom viewer is written to work in HTML!)
If they could redirect half of the Silverlight team to IE they might be able to salvage that browser!
s/exciting/excited/
Reviewing your comment before submitting: priceless.
Consumers don’t care about what is proprietary and what is open source. They just want things to work and be entertained. The only people who really care are html/javascript developers who hate the existence of functionality they don’t develop for.
Personally I don’t mind if a box on webpage has flash, silverlight, quicktime, or whatever. It’s all just content.
Yeah but the problem with what your saying is the developer is the one that these companies have to win over not the consumer. It is the developer that is going to decide what platform they are going to build on.
Demand dictates what developers need to deliver. Ask the leading ad and interactive agencies what their clients are asking for. That’s what pays the bills.
> Consumers don’t care about what is proprietary and what is open source.
Ask them if they care to be a hostage to Microsoft and Adobe and anyone else, and not be able to do with their content what they wish to do with their content … OR if they’d rather be able to do with their content what THEY wish to do with it. Go ahead, ask them. Then do what they say, OK?
ab
Google did ask them. Only 8% of people in Times Square could answer “what is a browser”? THEY DON’T CARE. Consumers want stuff that just works. They want to be entertained. They could give a crap if its HTML8, Flash, or Silverlight. “ab” you know what those consumers on times square would say to you – “you’re a dork – I have no idea what you’re talking about”
I wish that made sense. I hope English is your second language!
“If they could redirect half of the Silverlight team to IE they might be able to salvage that browser!”
+1
Was this written by MS PR department? It certainly reads like it was.
If you are an avid TC reader- you’ll notice that they pepper lots of their articles with positive references to Silverlight. The sweet smell of payola.
Has Silverlight always been cross-browser? Or was it originally IE-only?
it’s always been cross browser (supporting major released browsers… usually works with beta versions of the next generation as well but with some caveats)
Also cross platform – Mac and PC support from MS, and the Linux “Moonlight” port from the Mono team at Novell
Which will be the first to make it completely to the iPhone?
Since Apple would have final say, probably neither.
On a related note, Adobe also released a Flash-killer some time ago called LiveMotion http://en.wikip...dobe_LiveMotion It didn’t go anywhere so they killed it and ended up buying Macromedia. In those days, new competitors weren’t called “killers” but seems like people are more bloodthirsty nowadays.
weren’t they showing this at web 2.0 in conjunction to its myspace’s api
Silverlight has Microsoft services on its side: Windows Mobile, SharePoint, Bing Map Control, .NET, ASP.NET, IIS, Azure Cloud, XBOX etc.
Many people still missing the point why Silverlight is so big for Microsoft. Now they have a platform that YOU CAN WRITE ONCE and it works on: XBOX, desktop, web, Azure Cloud, SharePoint etc. That is a pretty big deal. I know Flash can do similar, however with Silverlight you have it all under one development environment
Exactly.
Silverlight = locking in users to the Microsoft ecosystem.
Lock-in = lock out competition
Microsoft remains as anti-competitive as ever.
And of course Flash is entirely open source isnt it? fucking dimwit…..
Except that Silverlight is an open spec…so you can use any competing implementation. Moonlight is farther along than the Linux flash clones are.
So, FUD you, Frank Delaney.
curious if it can beet the compressed filesize capability compared to what Flash is so good at.
As far as i know size of flash component is quite small as compared to silverlight and microsoft has no plans to reduce the filesize.
Not a Flash-Killer ? Ennngh…being a bit premature ? Silverlight has steadily gained on Flash/Flex, though probably not as quickly as Microsoft would like it. I haven’t “seen” anything that compelled me to think that javascript isn’t more than a glorified kludge, umpteen different js frameworks, each touting to be the one to be the “holy dom grail”, ehh, not quite. You can’t spend one week where there isn’t one or more new js frameworks released. C’mon already. You mean no one can come together and come up with a better way to manipulate the dom that isn’t so arcane ? That not withstanding, I agree it (js) is a necessity ( to a degree ).
And another thing, all this “open web” malarkey rumbles itself to the surface again and again, and many cry out, “HTML 5 will be the ____ “!, proclaiming that that will be the unifying force to “level the field”. C’mon, be honest with yourselves people. Do we want open standards ? Of course, don’t be silly. Are we anywhere near that today ? No we’re not, don’t be silly.
And to anyone who thinks they have to reboot their computer after installing SL3 ? Funny, the only thing I did was restart FF, in Windows. On my Mac, I didn’t even have to do THAT.
And CJ, yes, SL has always been cross-browser. I used SL1 in FF 2 without problems.
I like the idea of Silverlight and it seems to perform well…but ever since Microsoft dropped IE for Mac I’ve become suspicious of anything they develop for OSX.
Nice to see the .h264 support though.
This is obviously being released early to prep for the release of the 1080p video streaming coming to the xbox. They did say that the stream would start low quality and build up quality as it buffers, which is EXACTLY what this is going!! Looks quite well if you ask me.
Regarding the comment that SL needs to win over the developer not the consumer. In my opinion SL’s greatest advantage is the use of the .NET platform, which has over a million developers who have the built in skill set for Silverlight, so I see no problem winning them over. Also, the fact that Visual Studio is such a great toolset is what wins me over. As a former java developer who grudgingly swithced to .NET years ago, I’ve turned down higher paying job opportunities with companies that need a .NET/java developer because I only want do .NET. Now that I’ve been using SL since the beta 1.1, I much prefer developing in SL vs asp.net.
This may be a stupid question given my limited knowledge of airline call center operations, but I can’t make sense of the following statement. The first sentence talks about rich media applications and the example is for airline call center employees taking reservations and supplying information. What’s the connection?
6. The Push Towards Enterprise: Goldfarb says that Microsoft is making a a significant effort to show businesses that Silverlight can also be used internally to host and support rich media applications. For example, Continental Airlines is using Silverlight as the foundation for their call center application for employees who are taking reservations and supplying information
I think the author is trying to illustrate the point that Silverlight is traditionally thought of as a technology for the consumer web. i.e. media-related, slick designs, multimedia experiences.
However, Silverlight can be equally useful for enterprise web applications, as evidenced by the fact that Continental is building their call center application using Silverlight.
SL needs to be able to support streaming from the webcam and mic before I take a look at it…
Silverlight has that crazy spinny thing that appears every time a site loads with it. IMHO, until Microsoft can make it load nearly instantaneously, it will face significant obstacles for anything but video. Microsoft tried using it for a while with xrank and it required a few seconds to load before the chart popped up. Doesn’t this seem like a deal breaker? Please comment.
Umm… even Flash apps take a while to load…
Silverlight applications can be designed in a way to load quickly with limited functionality first, and gradually load additional modules as needed (just like Flash).
Also the spinning thing can be customized if that’s not your thing.
I expect Silverlight will see adoption in the enterprise, where there are large teams of .NET developers already in place, and design is not a priority.
Outside the enterprise, where design and UX is just as important as development, Silverlight won’t get much traction. Adobe dominates the design world, and interface designers won’t be interested in giving it up. I give Microsoft credit for the improvements they’ve made in their design tools, and innovative things like Sketchflow, but it’s not enough.
A few years from now everyone will know Silverlight as that thing you use at work for the corporate videos HR makes you watch, and Flash will be, as it is today, one of the invisible things in the background that makes the rest of the internet work.
I just doult no matter MS delivers what tpye of perfect products, people would not but in MS ’s rather than a less perfect but more open software.