I got several questions about when and if Silverlight (code name WPF/E) will be supported on Windows Mobile devices. The code name has included the word everywhere. Do you still remeber this:

"Empower people through great software at any time, at any place, on any device." (Bill Gates, 2000)

Seven years ago we still have the same question, if it will really run on any device. Microsoft is doing his best to support more and more Web browsers and devices. Today Silverlight supports following "devices":

• Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista:
  - Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
  - Windows Internet Explorer 7
  - Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.8 and 2.0.x
• Apple Mac OS X:
  - Firefox 1.5.0.8 and 2.0.x
  - Apple Safari 2.0.4

Support for Linux will be added if there is any need, but currently not on the roadmap as far as I know. Windows Mobile devices will be supported, but I think it will not be ready until MIX07 which already starts in a week. I would be happy to see Silverlight running on my Windows Mobile devices.

9 Comments

• Ben Hall said Wednesday, April 18, 2007 4:11:49 PM

  "Windows Mobile devices will be supported, but I think it will not be ready until MIX07" You think Windows Mobile will be supported in the next CTP then?

• interactive said Wednesday, April 18, 2007 7:18:31 PM

  Hi Ben, I think that Microsoft will offer a new CTP after the keynote that will offer new features (for the current supported Web browsers), but not for mobile devices. I think for mobile support we will wait until autumn... (but let us wait until end of April). Michael

• Nic said Wednesday, April 18, 2007 9:50:50 PM

  Any insight on what some of those new features might be ? - support for streaming like mms and rtsp ? - new codecs ?

• interactive said Wednesday, April 18, 2007 10:02:56 PM

  Nic, we have to wait until Mix07... :(

• n4cer said Thursday, April 19, 2007 1:09:53 AM

  mms is depricated (in "Longhorn" [not sure about 2k3 SP2]) it rolls over to rtsp or http), so streaming would likely be via rtsp and http.

• Colin Bowern said Wednesday, April 25, 2007 11:26:52 AM

  It would be nice to see mobile phones included in the mix. With the .NET Micro Framework shipping it seems like there is a play there to include a device set that will have four times the number of PCs in the next few years.

• Heinrich said Monday, April 30, 2007 11:02:46 AM

  do you know when MIX07 will be ready?

• Arkon said Wednesday, May 2, 2007 4:26:26 PM

  ...and still no FireFox support! You either get a cryptic JavaScript error or nothing at all. After all this hype, MS still fails miserably. No, this is *NOT* a Flash killer by a long shot.

• Sam said Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:19:28 AM

  What really got to me initially is that MS pushed for unity of all programming to be done in .net, then dumped any pre-XP versions with .net 3.0, and dumped 1.1 support in Vista. Then WPF/E dumped support for Win2K, even after it was working fine in an early release. Fortunately they've had the sense to announce it will be supported soon now :) (I still have to use Win2K at work, Vista at home) Linux will be supported by the mono team in a project called Moonlight, so I'd doubt MS will bother if this works well enough and is produced soon enough.