Silverlight adoption rate will accelerate during the global economic crisis and recession

Silverlight has been launched in October 2008 and since it has gained impressive ground. While some keep arguing that Silverlight is immature and predict slowdown or even darker destiny to Silverlight, there are many reasons to think just the opposite. Here is why Silverlight will win the market.

Let’s just focus to Silverlight 2. Since it was launched in October of 2008, Silverlight 2 has been installed on more than 300 million consumer PCs around world. As the current situation is – there is more than 25% of all computers running Silverlight 2. And yes – that has happened in just 4 months since it was installed – without being distributed with some new version of operating system or whatsoever. If we ask Microsoft about future predictions they are clear – it is expected that Silverlight adoption rate will roughly triple from April 2008 to April 2009 – with NO signs of slowdown.

Let’s take a look at Silverlight showcase web site. Designers, developers, partners – from all over the world have contributed do Silverlight showcase website and site has continued its growth. As I see it now, 444 applications from 52 countries have been submitted.

What about “real world” usage of Silverlight? One can argue that Flash is dominating world of interactive media, RIAs and alike, but Silverlight has amazing impact and stunning adoption rate. US President Barack Obama’s inaugural committee have adopted Silverlight and streamed its official video from January 20 and Obama’s official inauguration. CBS, BSkyB and Netflix are just some of the customers that have embraced Silverlight.

How will Silverlight perform in this time of global economic crisis and recessions?

Silverlight adoption will accelerate in the economic downturn. Well, that’s a big one. And here is why… Silverlight offers better price / performance for video solutions than competitors like Flash. It can serve more video at a lower cost – something that seems very appealing in these times (and generally, of course). According to Roeland Steklenburg who is manager at Digital Media, NOS – Silverlight was chosen because of its superior price / performance compared to competitors. In Web Designer Magazine issue form August 2008 he says:

With Windows Media Services we would need 40 servers to serve 100,000 concurrent users. With Flash Streaming we would need 270 servers for the same amount.

You do the math.

Reusing existing skills, leveraging the power of collaboration

When it comes to (re)using existing knowledge and skills from .NET domain for building RIAs and other Silverlight based solutions, case is also very clear. Silverlight 2 contains subset of .NET Framework meaning that customers can reuse their knowledge of .NET (C#, Visual Basic…) when building next generation web apps. And yes – that means no additional costs for educating developers – they are great with .NET.

While developers are great with .NET and really like it – what is about designers, or even better with collaboration between designers and developers? Well, Silverlight fits just nicely in this. With XAML and complete separation between code and design there is no need for compromises and doing double work – hence increasing the total cost. Quite popular case study about ISC – provide or spatially enabled solutions serves as a good example. The company acquired a design group and began using Microsoft® Expression Blend™ design software together with the Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008 Professional Edition software development system. Because both tools support XML Application Markup Language (XAML), designers and developers can more easily work together, sharing projects, code, and user interface designs. The company’s new approach to building software has resulted in improved collaboration between designers and developers, an earlier focus on the user experience, more customer-friendly solutions, and faster development times—all of which have helped the company’s new Interactive Design group become profitable in only two months. Yes – profitable in just two months. If you are interested more in this case study be sure to take a look here.

UX is here to stay. Forever.

And let me say it bluntly: customers will design software user interfaces and build great user experiences no matter the economic downturn. You can’t be serious and say that now all things UX will be stopped and that everyone is forced to move from “nice-to-have” features to “must-have” features. And reason is simple – better, richer user experiences are leading to more revenue. More revenue is mantra today! Better and richer UX leads to longer visits to web site – therefore – better the chances for developing and supporting some kind of advertising revenue model. The average user spent 27 minutes more on the Silverlight powered NBCOlympics.com website compared to Flash based BBC Olympics website. Another case study shows that Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions used Silverlight, along with other Microsoft technologies, to improve the customer experience of its Web site.  Now, visitors spend an average of 30 minutes per visit to the site—four times the typical visit on competitive sites. For those more interested, take a look at complete case study here.

Analysts have something to add, too

And if we ask analysts what they say about RIA market  – you will get simple answer – strong and growing. Famous Gartner in his first MarketScope for RIA and AJAX rated Microsoft as “positive” and made clear that Silverlight has rapidly growing mind share that Gartner expects will translate into strong market share over time, especially within enterprises. I am positive that same holds for personal, home users – consumers. Forrester has noted that RIAs are now moving into mainstream – and when it comes to Silverlight – as topic it now comes up around 40% of the time. Last year it was 13%. And something that really makes me happy personally because that was point that I was keen on making – Gartner also notes that through 2009 we will see gradual, yet steady shift in use from simple and lightweight Ajax solutions towards more substantial, but still not “too-heavy” presentation technologies like Microsoft Silverlight or  Adobe Flex.

Just to summarize at the end – 300 million installs in about 4 months – over 1 in four computers worldwide has Silverlight installed. In some countries penetration approaches 60%… All that makes Silverlight of the fastest growing browser plug-ins in the history of the internet. Better performances, lower costs, support for developers and designers, growing market even in these times of economic crisis and recession – all that makes Silverlight just great platform and solution. It will save you money and bring you more revenue – even in these tough times.

First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.

Gandhi

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