Microsoft tries to calm Silverlight fears

Microsoft's server and tools division president has taken to the blogosphere in an attempt to calm fears about the early demise of Silverlight.

Bob Muglia appeared to suggest last week that Silverlight may be over for Microsoft, demoted in favour of HTML 5.

Muglia conceded that his comments were reported accurately, but had unfortunately caused "controversy and confusion".

"As this certainly wasn't my intention, I want to apologise for that. I'd like to use this post to expand on what I said, and talk about the very important role Silverlight has," he explained on the Silverlight Team Blog.

"I said that 'our Silverlight strategy and focus going forward has shifted'. This isn't a negative statement, but rather a comment on how the industry has changed and how we're adapting our Silverlight strategy to take advantage of that."

The Silverlight strategy will be built around a number of trends, Muglia explained, including its use in the creation of web-based client applications, while Silverlight 4 is likely to find its place in enterprise app development and "rich business apps".

"The purpose of Silverlight has never been to replace HTML, but to do the things that HTML (and other technologies) can't, and to do so in a way that's easy for developers to use," he said.

Muglia added that Microsoft will continue to invest in the technology and support developers who are already working with the software.

"Silverlight enables great client app and media experiences. It's now installed on two-thirds of the world's computers, and more than 600,000 developers currently build software using it," he said.

"Make no mistake: we'll continue to invest in Silverlight and enable developers to build great apps and experiences with it in the future."

However, in the comments section of the blog it appeared that developers were unenthused by the post and expressed disappointment about what to them still looks like a demotion for Silverlight.