Silverlight 3 Released, Expression 3 Imminent

Silverlight 3 and Expression 3, released in July 2009, add features such as advanced video support and design prototyping tools and may lead to further developer and designer adoption of Microsoft’s rich Internet application (RIA) platform. However, Silverlight’s primary competitor, Adobe Flash, continues to lead in client deployments.

Silverlight Adds Advanced Video, Out-of-Browser Support

Silverlight is Microsoft’s platform for RIAs, which are interactive graphical applications delivered over the Web that run in a browser plug-in. Silverlight is compatible with Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, and Safari browsers on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms. Silverlight for mobile devices is planned, but Microsoft has not announced its release date.

Silverlight 3 improves on video capabilities by adding support for video encoded in the H.264 standard (also known as MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding), an increasingly popular video standard due to its delivery of high-definition video at relatively low bit rates. It also takes advantage of graphics hardware acceleration and can deliver high-definition video playback. The Smooth Streaming feature of IIS 7.0 Media Services, which improves Silverlight playback by continuously adjusting the bit rate of video delivery to optimize for available CPU and bandwidth, can be used with Silverlight 3 to support HDTV-quality (1080p) video.