Speaking at the MIX conference last week, Senior Microsoft technology evangelist Giorgio Sardo reiterated the company’s stance that developers will know when to use Silverlight or HTML5, responding that “I’m sure you know your customers better than anyone else. I’m not going to judge which works better.”
Microsoft used the conference to announce the release of the beta version of Silverlight 5. Silverlight was Microsoft’s answer to Flash, but lately, HTML5 has taken center stage as the technology of choice.
The release of Silverlight 5 is scheduled to coincide with the next generation of Windows Phone, which is not surprising given that Silverlight is the development platform for Windows Phone. Microsoft won’t make a definitive statement of when to use Silverlight over HTML5, however when it’s Silverlight vs. Flash, there is no choice, at least for Microsoft developers–Silverlight 5 all the way.
