Gadgets Mobiles

Microsoft might be the one to offer a reasonable alternative. Microsoft UX Platform Manager Brian Goldfarb was demoing Silverlight working on an iPhone to wirelessly stream H.264 video at the Professional Developer Conference ‘09. Now, it’s a bit of a mis leading to think Apple and Microsoft are collaborating closely on this project; it’s the Microsoft guys doing the heavy lifting, Apple simply gave the go-ahead. It’s not entirely out of place for Silverlight to be sniffing around platforms other than Windows Mobile.

They’ve dedicated to Symbian and Maemo, and there’s even rumblings of BlackBerry support. Silverlight rendering is done server-side à la Opera on Microsoft’s IIS servers, so you’ll be waiting quite awhile for buffering and processing before getting the final product on your mobile. Still, there’s progress being made, and if they can make it to iPhone before Adobe does, then I wager a lot of web developers eager to capitalize on the rich Safari mobile browser will happily make the switch.