Post-MIX Thoughts
I can sum up the results of the MIX07 Web development conference in two words:
Game On.
Microsoft protests consistently that Silverlight is not just a Flash competitor.
After all, the company wired Silverlight to leapfrog the mass-market concept
of a multimedia runtime engine to deliver a rich Internet application platform
in progress. And while today's working version of Silverlight won't pay off
on these promises, the upcoming Silverlight 1.1, currently in alpha, almost
certainly will.
Yet, for all the synergies being baked into Silverlight by way of XAML, Expression
Studio and Visual Studio, a simple fact remains: Microsoft has committed itself
to the Web development space in the biggest possible way. Witness the way Redmond
pushed the ASP.NET AJAX toolkit (formerly code-named "Atlas") out
the door ahead of the Orcas wave, or the way XAML has become a common theme
across Silverlight, Visual Studio, Expression Blend and Windows Presentation
Foundation.
The pieces and tooling are snapping into place. Now the question becomes: Can
Microsoft lure a critical mass of Web content developers to its freshly minted
platforms?
I'm betting it can. Wooing developers is a game Microsoft knows well. Many
of the company's greatest victories -- including that over Netscape -- were
the result of doing more for the customers at the root of Microsoft's success:
developers.
What do you think? Can Microsoft wrest the attention of developers and designers
away from Adobe? And will Adobe have to change its game plan if it hopes to
keep Microsoft at bay? E-mail me at mdesmond@reddevnews.com.
Posted by Michael Desmond on 05/09/2007