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Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?

By | May 27, 2010, 5:59am PDT

Summary: Developers are abuzz over a Wall Street analyst’s claim that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may make an appearance at the upcoming Apple World Wide Developers Conference in early June. Could this be the long-rumored debut of Silverlight for the iPhone?

Developers are abuzz over a Wall Street analyst’s claim that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may make an appearance at the upcoming Apple World Wide Developers Conference in early June. The speculation centers around talk that Ballmer himself may introduce some kind of add-on for Visual Studio 2010 to support development of iPhone apps using Microsoft’s tool suite.

While that’s possible — after all, there’s an add-on for Visual Studio 2010 that supports Windows Phone 7 development – I’m thinking something else may be afoot. If Ballmer is going to make a cameo appearance at WWDC, I’m thinking if such an announcement happens, it’ll be Silverlight for the iPhone.

Update: Microsoft (via Twitter) is denying Ballmer will be there, but maybe someone else from Microsoft will? No word on that….

Back to Silverlight and the iPhone…

Thanks to developer Mike Sax, president and founder of Sax Software, for his tweet that put this idea in my head.)

Update: Two of my Twitter followers (@makram and @clubdirthill) noted that the announcement also could be the rumored Bing on iPhone/iPad exclusive. Good point. If it’s going to be Ballmer on stage, it’s likely a bigger a tit-for-tat deal. (”I’ll trade you Bing on the iPhone if you give me Silverlight on the iPhone…)

No one from Microsoft is talking about any kind of rumored Ballmer/WWDC announcements, but such a move isn’t outside the realm of possibility. Yes, Microsoft and Apple are rivals in the phone and PC space, but Microsoft sells Office for Mac (and has a new version of that product coming out this holiday season).

More fodder: WWDC kicks off the same day/week that Microsoft’s TechEd developer/IT pro conference does. And Microsoft has been tight-lipped about which of its execs (other than Server and Tools President Bob Muglia) will be keynoting that event in New Orleans. I’d guess that means Ballmer is not going to be at TechEd — which means he could be in San Francisco (with a live webcast feed beamed to the TechEd masses from WWDC).

A Silverlight for iPhone port has been hinted at by Microsoft for the past couple of years. And since Apple CEO Steve Jobs is continuing to ban Silverlight-rival Flash on the iPhone and iPad, Microsoft would love to get a leg up there. (And Apple would have some kind of alternative those wanting to view rich-media content on its mobile devices.)

But Silverlight isn’t solely about media playback via a plug-in that already works on Apple’s Safari (as well as Internet Explorer and Firefox). Silverlight also a development platform. Silverlight is one of the two main developer platforms (the other being XNA for games) that Microsoft is offering developers for Windows Phone 7.

Would it really be so hard for Microsoft to extend support of Silverlight to iPhone developers? (I’m asking here because I don’t know and I’d love some input from Windows Phone developers on this one.)

What do you think? Could the rumors be true? Might Microsoft be willing to sacrifice one of the few advantages it has in the smartphone space (great development tools) to get more folks developing on Silverlight?

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Topics

Apple iPhone, Developer, Microsoft Silverlight, Steve Ballmer, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Smart Phones, Productivity, Operating Systems, Software, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

Talkback Most Recent of 102 Talkback(s)

  • Bing!
    Wouldn't a Bing announcement be a more likely possibility? That seems more likely to me. If Jobs won't allow flash, why would he allow SilverLight?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    rjohn05
    27th May 2010
  • And MS maps and not Google Maps
    @rjohn05

    VS? I don't see it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Bruizer
    27th May 2010
  • Silverlight is a far more promising platform than Flash
    If Jobs could not stand the threats from Flash as a platform, there's no way he'd want SilverLight.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    LBiege
    27th May 2010
  • And the promise behind what Silverlight can do
    would be enough of a reason to put it in a browser. What will happen is you'll have one side running Silverlight (Microsoft and Apple), and running it well on devices capable of OpenGLES 2 and later (iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPod Touch 3rd gen 32/64 GB). On the other side (Android), you'll have a number of devices that can run Flash. Some will run it well, others will choke more than half of the time. The majority of current Android devices choke on Flash 10.1, and only the fastest devices run it well.

    This would also prove very beneficial to Microsoft, as it would further promote the adoption of Silverlight on the desktop as a replacement for Flash. Adobe would be forced to improve, and it wouldn't be a bad thing. Especially since Silverlight has been able to comfortably play streaming HD video on my wife's MacBook Pro in OS X and Windows this entire time, where the flash 10.1 beta just added this ability recently (by comfortably, I'm not talking about frame rate, I'm talking about heat generated at the bottom of the machine).
    ZDNet Gravatar
    nix_hed
    27th May 2010
  • Balmer will say
    @Bruizer I say it'll just be his annual "Office for Mac" announcement with a twist (if anyone at all shows up). They'll be bringing Office Live Mobile to iPlatform. Big Woopi... Silverlight violates the same agreement that FLASH does. That's the old anyone can develop for Apple as long as they are white and wear Clonewear Designed by Steve Jobs Rule!

    Bing would have Steve and Steve (of Microsoft), looking like the bobsy twins. Bing's Gaudy Vegas flashing lights look can repel vampires. So it'd repel Steve Jobs for sure. Not to mention users, who would go nuts over that change alone. Also the likelihood of their deal with Google for Search being tied to Google Earth and it's geo tagging location awareness!

    Microsofts tool suite? Right.... no way.... it too violates Objective C native apps only development on iPlatform. Anti-Trust litigation would surely come with that move. Remember.... it's then like a group of corporations working to keep competition out. That would also violate Apples whole reason for not wanting FLASH on iPlatform. Every Program Must be developed using Apple's tools and Objective C for conformity of performance!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    i2fun@...
    27th May 2010
  • RE: Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?
    The hypocrisy is astounding as much as it is obvious. I increasingly regret my move to Apple a year ago.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    angel tenan
    7th Jul
  • RE: Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?
    I think it is already first warning to Adobe that it is time for them to develop their own OS and probably hardware. Nobody wants to see them on smart phones so they have to consider to purchase Palm ahead of HP.
    Otherwise they would be kicked off smart phone market and their propagation at PCs would be damaged as a b c d e f g h i j k l bt bu bv bw bx by well.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Proksi Pasang bck
    7th Jul
  • RE: Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?
    Bing is possible as Apple has changed the "Google" button to "Search" in iPhone 4.0. Visual Studio with Objective C support is possible, but m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae unlikely.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Proksi Pasang bck
    7th Jul
  • RE: Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?
    I get that Mary Jo probably doesn't follow Apple and probably isn't on top of things, but your comment is just as disappointing. Silverlight is in the same category as Flash. It's not going to happen. Apple has no reason to F-U Adobe. Not supporting Flash is about making the iPhone experience better, not about F-Uing af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az Adobe.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Proksi Pasang bck
    7th Jul
  • RE: Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?
    If you or I created a competing app and got treated like this, especially in a so-called "FREE MARKET SYSTEM", we'd be a tad annoyed as ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bv bw bx by well.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Proksi Pasang bck
    7th Jul
  • RE: Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?
    and more proof of market manipulation and keeping other vendors bx bz ci cj ck cl cm cn co cp cq cr cs ct cu cv out.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Proksi Pasang bck
    7th Jul
  • RE: Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?
    Silverlight is very import, but is not enough to move SteveB that far. Only Bing can do.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    angel tenan
    7th Jul
  • RE: Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?
    Performance (less resource hogging)? Better optimisation for iPhone OS? If any software house can make that happen, and do it better than Adobe, it's gotta be Microsoft or Google, and forget the latter in this war-climate.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    angel tenan
    7th Jul
  • RE: Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?
    You made a good point. I think people seeing it as anti-Flash when in reality it isn't anti-Flash, it is also anti-Java, anti-Silverlight, anti-Brew or what ever other VM like runner you can think of. Anything that acts as a virtual machine and allows an individual to run an application inside another application (thus bypass the appstore) is banned.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    angel tenan
    7th Jul
  • RE: Is Silverlight for iPhone finally on its way?
    Flash just so happened to be the most high profile ban but that doesn't mean it is specifically targeted at Flash.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    angel tenan
    7th Jul
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