Less than one year after launching Silverlight 3, Microsoft on Thursday will release the next version of its Adobe Flash competitor, Silverlight 4.
One of the big additions is the ability to run Silverlight applications out of the browser – on the desktop or a mobile device. That's key, because Microsoft is pushing Silverlight as the platform for developing apps for Windows Phone 7.
"Our goal with Silverlight is to enable it everywhere, not just on the desktop but also on mobile devices and also in the living room," Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Platform, said during his keynote Tuesday at the DevConnections conference in Las Vegas.
That means Silverlight in Web browsers, on smart phones, on DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, and on television set-top boxes. Microsoft envisions cable boxes that use Silverlight to provide faster and smoother menus, and incorporate games.
"Integrating your set-top box with your friends' networks, Twitter or Xbox Live, is also key," said Larry Olson, a Microsoft program manager.
For media presentations, such as NBC's online Olympics site or CBS's March Madness webcasts, Microsoft has added support for multicast streaming and multiple computer displays. Silverlight 4 also supports webcams and microphones, plus offline digital rights management (DRM), Guthrie said.
For "trusted applications," Microsoft has added the ability for developers to make apps with custom window chromes, access to local file systems, support for cross-site networking, keyboard use during full-screen mode, and deeper hardware support. The Silverlight team also added more capabilities for building enterprise apps: implicit styles, drag and drop, more foreign languages and HTML support.
Developers can use Visual Studio 2010, which Microsoft released Monday, and Expression Blend 4 to build Silverlight apps.
Guthrie said Silverlight is "approaching" 60 percent penetration – at the Professional Developers Conference in November, he said Silverlight was installed on about 40 percent of computers.
More information about Silverlight 4 is available here.
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