The hot topic at Mix was the beta release of Silverlight 3. Tons of new features including 3D and animation effects, hardware acceleration support, multi-touch, outside-the-browser capabilities, and native support for h.264 and 720p HD amongst other things. In addition, its been retooled with cross-application support between Blend and Word to enhance rapid development, new controls, SEO enhancement, deep linking and more.
I first encountered Silverlight 2 years ago when it was first released at NAB as version 1 (the Javascript version). Quickly iStream assimilated into the Silverlight army and helped push several products into the forefront with Silverlight 2 over the last year+ including several prominent public jobs and some to be released shortly. Now, just 23 short months later, SL3 promises some great stuff.
For all those that say Flash still kicks SL in the ass, maybe true, but with a 10 year head-start I would’ve thought they’d still be leaps and bounds ahead. The fact that SL is quickly catching up and becoming a prominent player especially in the business forefront says something about its acceptance and viability. Don’t take me wrong, I too still develop plenty of Flash apps and here at iStream we take strides to develop interfaces concurrently on both platforms but the sheer speed at which SL has come to adolescence speaks volumes about what it may bring in the near future.