{"id":1317,"date":"2008-04-22T15:42:39","date_gmt":"2008-04-22T21:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.redmonk.com\/cote\/?p=1317"},"modified":"2008-04-22T15:42:39","modified_gmt":"2008-04-22T21:42:39","slug":"market-context-for-silverlight-a-brief-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/2008\/04\/22\/market-context-for-silverlight-a-brief-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Market Context for Silverlight – A Brief Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little while ago, a reporter asked me several questions about Silverlight. Rather than lock-up that Q&A in my email archives, I’ve spliced it in below with some minor edits. Also, for more Silverlight\/Microsoft analysis, check out RIA Weekly #11<\/i> with WaveMaker’s Chris Keene<\/a>. Chris<\/a> had a lot to say on the topic, which prompted more commentary from Ryan<\/a> and I.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> What is your overall feeling about Silverlight at this time?<\/p>\n

A:<\/b> At the moment, Silverlight feels like it’s going to be on a full-on contender
\nwith Flash and Flex in a short time. Silverlight 2.0 is supposed to bring in
\nthe more “hard core” GUI programming features<\/a> that Flex has. Perhaps Microsoft’s Mesh project<\/a> will address the offline synch tick-list of AIR. Then, the battle
\nwill be over ubiquity, developer hearts and minds, and control of the web.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> Do you think Silverlight brings anything actually new to multimedia Web
\ntechnology and features compared to Adobe’s Flash\/FLEX platform?<\/p>\n

Not really. Sure, there’re different codecs, ways of providing a rich
\ninterface, and there are things awesome Silverlight features like the recent
\ndemo of SeaDragon integration<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

A:<\/b> I’m
\nalways waiting for the .Net CLR to be a big deal industry-wide, but without solid
\ncross-platform support on runtime and tools<\/i> (Windows, Mac, and Linux\/Unix),
\nthe CLR’s benefits are limited to Window-bound developers. At the end of the
\nday, both are just delivering “GUI 2.0,” which is much welcomed over current
\nGUI frameworks.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> Do you see much demand for Silverlight development (spurred either by
\ndevelopers or the market), or anticipate there will be significant demand?<\/p>\n

A:<\/b> Yes, people will want to develop in Silverlight. Pre-existing Microsoft
\ndevelopers will use it for sure, and if there’s a good cross-platform even –
\ndare I say it? – open source story when it comes to runtimes and tools<\/i>, new
\ndevelopers will be interested as well. Select developers are loving the
\nrichness that Flex gives them now, and the idea that UI’s have to be HTML\/Ajax
\nbased is showing some cracks. The interest is there, it just needs to be well
\nfed.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> Ultimately, how do you think Silverlight will fare in this space? Is it a
\nreal threat to Flash, or not at all? Or will they co-exist equally on the
\nInternet?<\/p>\n

A:<\/b> Silverlight is a threat to Flash and Flex for sure. Developers have a limited
\namount of attention, and the two compete for the UI slices of that pie.<\/p>\n

For me, the really interesting competitor are companies like Google and Yahoo! who
\ndepend on the web being primarily HTML\/Ajax based to serve up ads and provide
\nother services. A new UI layer that runs on-top of the web could be a real
\nhassle (read: loosing money) for people and services that are used to the more “transparent” UI
\nlayer that the “View Source” nature of the web affords.<\/p>\n

Ongoing, we’ll find
\nout how open Adobe, Microsoft, and other RIA offerings are to the web-hackablity
\nwe’ve grown accustomed to, and made plenty of revenue with over the past
\ndecade or so. Of course, that only matters if these RIA offerings replace
\nlarge parts of the web as we know it, which is still a big “if.”<\/p>\n

For more on that, see RIA Weekly<\/i> episode #10<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Disclaimer:<\/b> Microsoft is a client, as is Adobe.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags: ria<\/a>, silverlight<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Questions on Silverlight and its place in the marketplace, along with (potential) developer interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,12,17,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development-tools","category-enterprise-software","category-marketing","category-programming"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}