Google, Microsoft and Apple

by Joey deVilla on July 6, 2011

The prototype for Microsoft's Kinect camera and microphone famously cost $30,000. At midnight Thursday morning, you'll be able to buy it for $150 as an Xbox 360 peripheral. Let's take some time to think about how it all works.

At Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this week, the future of Silverlight is one topic that has gotten short shrift. There have been no sessions about Silverlight 5 and only one mention of Silverlight in the kick-off keynote.

But there were plenty of mentions of HTML 5 and Microsoft’s commitment to that technology, not only in the next version of its Internet Explorer browser, but also as the glue “facilitating a level of independence and innovation between the back end and the front end” (as CEO Steve Ballmer said during an October 28 keynote address at the PDC).

So what’s a developer to make of Microsoft’s messaging (or lack thereof) about Silverlight at its premiere developer conference?

I asked Bob Muglia, the Microsoft President in charge of the company’s server and tools business, that very question and got what I consider to be the clearest answer yet about how Microsoft is evolving its Silverlight strategy.

“Silverlight is our development platform for Windows Phone,” he said. Silverlight also has some “sweet spots” in media and line-of-business applications, he said.

But when it comes to touting Silverlight as Microsoft’s vehicle for delivering a cross-platform runtime, “our strategy has shifted,” Muglia told me.

Silverlight will continue to be a cross-platform solution, working on a variety of operating system/browser platforms, going forward, he said. “But HTML is the only true cross platform solution for everything, including (Apple’s) iOS platform,” Muglia said.

On the “death” of Silverlight

This week, Microsoft announced their changing strategy regarding Silverlight. You can read more about that here:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-our-strategy-with-silverlight-has-shifted/7834.

The key points are that going forward, Silverlight’s focus will be as the framework with which you will create Windows Phone 7 applications. As for Rich Internet/Interactive Applications on the web, Microsoft is going to start pushing HTML 5 as the solution.

via bit-101.com

Alright, who out there is getting one of these shiny new phones?? If you are getting one, what was your reasoning to get one of these and not an iPhone?