Microsoft Targets Adobe Flash with Silverlight 1.0 Launch in India

Software giant Microsoft Corp. today announced its new cross-platform and cross-platform plug-in, Silverlight 1.0, would now be available to users in India. The Silverlight 1.0 would be able to provide users with enhanced media experiences online, on the PC, and also on mobile applications.

In a statement today, Microsoft said using Silverlight 1.0, business organizations in India would now be able to provide clients with online applications that are much more advanced, in terms of richness and interactivity, than currently existing applications.

Already providing advanced solutions for a number of widely-used browsers such as Mozilla FireFox, Internet Explorer, and Apple Safari, Microsoft said the newest plug-in in the Indian market would be competing with Adobe Flash. Adobe’s Flash has had a massive head start, and has been providing clients with solutions high on interactivity and richness for the past several years.

According to the Microsoft statement, Silverlight 1.0 would work in tandem with web technologies that are already available. This is what would enable development of newer web applications high on interactivity and richness, the statement said. The other advantage Silverlight would offer businesses is a reduced delivery cost, something critical for all businesses.

The general manager for Developer and Platform Evangelism for Microsoft India, Tarun Gulati said, “Many companies in India and across the world today are using path breaking customer experience as a competitive advantage for their businesses, and we believe that Microsoft's products such as Silverlight, Expression, and WPF will allow companies to take this to the next level in an easy and cost effective manner.”

Ever since Microsoft released Silverlight on the web, businesses in at least 20 countries worldwide have been using it. So far at least 40 customers from these countries have delivered more than 60 web applications for Silverlight.

With its India release, companies expected to use the plug-in include Rediff.com, Sify.com, Sulekha.com, and also the Indian Cricket League. All these companies are planning to deliver web applications to viewers that are based on Silverlight.

Silverlight 1.0 is not the only product that has come out of the Microsoft stable in recent times. Another recent launch is Microsoft’s Expression Studio. The Expression Studio is a product suite targeted at designers. This suite of products helps designers and developers to collaborate better.

Silverlight 1.0 would work in tandem with Expression Studio and another Microsoft product, Visual Studio 08, to help designers and developers create interactive and rich applications for users seamlessly.

On another front, Microsoft is also collaborating with Novell Inc. to develop a Silverlight version for Linux. This version would work on the Linux platform, and would be called Moonlight, sources at the company said.