Silverlight is dead. Long live HTML 5.
It seems that Microsoft has announced that HTML 5 and JavaScript, rather than Silverlight, will be the basis for front-end applications in Windows 8. The Silverlight community is up in arms.
This decision is hardly surprising. Silverlight was pretty much doomed from the start. It was a rival to a well-established, if flaky, technology — Flash — and pretty late to the party, so to developers not wedded to the Microsoft ecosystem (and that means 90% of web developers and designers), it was a great big yawn. And its prospects were effectively killed off when Apple decided to ban non-approved programming languages and frameworks from the App Store — therefore, no Flash, and by extension, no Silverlight. The iPhone and iPad are a huge market — if something doesn’t run on them, it isn’t cross-platform.
In the meantime, HTML 5 has come to the fore as a standard that looks set to render both these technologies obsolete. It is (partially at least, and increasingly) supported natively by web browsers without requiring any additional extensions. It’s an open W3C standard with a history spanning two decades, so it’s here to stay, as well as being a skill that can easily be transferred to other environments. XAML may be nice, but it has little or no traction outside of .NET.
For what it’s worth, this illustrates the risk of limiting your experience and skills to the Microsoft ecosystem. A lot of people have invested a lot of time and effort in becoming Silverlight specialists, and now they’re scared because it looks like those skills are set to become pretty much worthless over the next few years. I wouldn’t advocate ditching Microsoft altogether, but it’s always a good idea to be attentive to what’s going on elsewhere and not put all your eggs in one basket. Besides, if you’re familiar with what’s going on elsewhere, it can help to give you a better feel for which of Microsoft’s frameworks and technologies are likely to be a good long-term investment and which aren’t.
Posted at 10:00 on 3 June 2011.
Right and Flash is going away too huh?
SilverLight is an incredibly powerful toolkit, it does have relatively high barriers to entry to create visually outstanding applications but that doesn’t mean it’s going to just die because people can write JS/HTML5 applications.
Another interesting article on “something” is dead 🙂 .
“For what it’s worth, this illustrates the risk of limiting your experience and skills to the Microsoft ecosystem. ” . Well u say risk . risk is everywhere … crossing a road ( might find ur self hit by a truck ) if you feel its risk lolz 🙂 .
But coming to the point . If the platform changes to HTML5 that doesnt mean that silverlight will not be supported .
Did you know what platform is WP7 based on ?
HTML5 will be the recommended technology for public facing RIA’s but silverlight will still serve a role as a technology for internal LOB apps. Its not going away.
@Chris: Being a powerful toolkit has nothing to do with it. The problem is that it was late to market and that its cross-platform ambitions were thwarted by Apple.
@Senthil: Did you know what WP7’s market share is?
@Steve: Really? I’d have thought Silverlight would be overkill for most internal LOB applications, for which aesthetics don’t matter and WinForms is fine.
Sure, Silverlight won’t die overnight — it will continue to live on to support legacy code, but it’s just not captured the market, it’s as simple as that.
Is it possible to think that MS can be able to convert/adapt SL code to different UI technologies including HTML5/CSS3?
Quite possibly, but it would be a pretty leaky abstraction.
Silverlight is in no way overkill for LOB applications.
I take it you’re not a developer because handling the amount of business logic, webservices and sub-modules in javascript instead of C# is like begging for trouble and maintenance issues. Having worked on numerous projects, I can say that the user experience (with the help of async loading), sharing code on both the server and client as well as speed of development is what will keep Silverlight in the game for a long time.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. It’s market share that will keep Silverlight in the game, and it simply doesn’t have that.
Why, pray tell, does liking JavaScript make me a non-developer?
What marketshare are you referring to exactly?
If you have any numbers on how Silverlight has failed to gain marketshares in internal company applications then please do share that. Both Sharepoint and Dynamics has full support for, and encourages, integrating Silverlight apps with ease.
You’re no less developer than anyone else here but you have to understand that depending on the environment, target audience and size of the project, one should always look to use the right tool for the job whether it’s HTML or Silverlight. They rather complement eachother in a pretty good way if used correctly.
Why do I hate statements such as “Silverlight is dead. Long live HTML 5.”? It’s because they are brave yet pointless unless there is an official company announcement. Silverlight 5 is coming out later this year and WP7 supports it by heart. It’s supported both on Mac and Windows. Ask any .NET developer, you’ll get a laughter at HTML5 replacing Silverlight.
Anyway, give me XAML, C#, and .NET so I can keep up my sanity. I don’t need the ugly-looking world of HTML and JavaScript.
But not on the iPhone/iPad, as I’ve already stated. Ask any non-.NET developer (or any ALT.NET developer for that matter), you’ll get an acknowledgement that HTML5 is the way to go if you want to do cross platform development.
Oh, and there’s nothing ugly about HTML and JavaScript. The belief that JavaScript is ugly and scary is completely outdated now that we have JavaScript frameworks such as jQuery and browser debuggers such as Firebug and the debugging tools in IE8/9.
“The belief that JavaScript is ugly and scary is completely outdated…”
I think the only way somebody could say this is if they’ve never developed a large enterprise application. Geez… if you only consider simply adding a reusable Outlook-style calendar to your application using JavaScript/HTML/CSS, you’re almost screwed!
There are two reasons I will never embrace Javascript for anything large:
1) No static typing.
2) Interpreted (non-compiled) execution.
These two flaws both cause the majority of bugs in code. I’ve actually seen some javascript code where somebody mistyped a variable name on some obscure report and the bug was not found until a year later. A real language (statically typed and compiled) would have found that bug instantly.
Additionally, there are some UI layouts that are impossible with HTML in a cross browser fashion, though maybe this is fixed in HTML5.
I don’t see how HTML5 + JavaScript can provide anything other than standard AppStore type Apps and run of the mill LOB applications. In response @Jame “Really? I’d have thought Silverlight would be overkill for most internal LOB applications, for which aesthetics don’t matter and WinForms is fine.” My Jaw literally dropped!
A) There is a trillion dollar industry out there of bespoke software producing/consulting companies trying to develop software to companies which provide 1 slight advantage over their competitor, HTML5 offer nothing to them, their existing (and competitors) software is in WinForms….. WPF/SL is far better than anything else right now.
B) I’m in the fortunate position having developed several enterprise grade systems in the past, and have good experience with RIA/AJAX type technologies. I’m of the firm opinion Silverlight (V4) does not yet do all I would hope for from a LOB application (by a large margin, WPF is close), but why should I wait 5 years for HTML5 to finally catch up with the technologies of today (at which point I suspect HTML5 will resemble an ActiveX2.0 technology anyway)
C) I advocate HTML5/Ajax would be perfectly adequate to develop a new CRM, PetStore.Net, Web Portal, Web Catalogues, Web Stores, CMS, Intranets or yet another Blog engine.
Bit given that there are some very established players in each of those fields (all of which will follow the tech according i.e. develop their presentation layer to suit the market); But tell me how it would manage complex systems such as Treasury Payments, Share dealing options/swaps matching, resource appointments, ERP, Accountancy, Financial Curves, Auctions, Decision support… or basically anything which literally cannot afford for the application (browser) to hang/repost. A SL/WPF can very effectively manage these threads, state and connectivity.
D) Silverlight encourages a fantastic new architecture in MVVM, whereas HTML5+ JS appears to me like a giant leap backward. If I developer a SL LOB application and SL was to lose favour, I should be able to switch to any other presentation framework without much heartache…. Oh apart from HTML5 + JS which involves a trip back to the IE6 in terms of thought process?
E) In the same vein, IE6 is held responsible for holding back the progress of the web significantly, I can’t help feel Apple will [should, (since apple can do no wrong)] be held responsible for holding back RIA, sending the entire world back to the dumb terminal connected to massive mainframes of the 80s.
F) I live in major city in the UK, in a brand new estate (prime for great internet connection). My current speed is less than 250kbs, so I love any app which is observes an occasionally connected state, the same can be assumed for mobile users. Whilst HTML5 is geared up for occasionally connected, SL by its very definition is better equipped.
G) Security, with such an open standard, how do things like bookmarklets , misuse of the offline cache,
Roundup Statement:
1) Do I think HTML5 + Javascript will be better than SL == Yes, but not for about 5 years!
2)What are you going to be doing in the next 5 years == Providing my customers with the commercial advantage (via SL) and trying to their transition tp HTML5+JS seamless
3) If people (WC3/Apple) recognise progress, steps 1 & 2 should be aided by HTML following the fantastic foundation/principles set down by XAML, and not be blindsided by Flash/Flex etc.
Conclusion:
Personally< I’d be more worried about the recent Kinect SDK release as a total paradigm shift in the GUI landscape, since whether you be Java, Python, Ruby, Assembler or .Net the main 9/10th of the application will remain the same.
You guys are seriously underestimating the capabilities of HTML 5. If you want to see what is available with it today, just check out the slideshow at slides.html5rocks.com in Google Chrome.
@David: OK, so you’ve established that there’s a market for WPF in LOB applications. I’m not denying that. Indeed, internal LOB applications are one area where Microsoft still enjoys a pretty substantial majority share in the market.
But that was a throwaway remark of mine. To focus on it completely misses the point.
Silverlight is Microsoft’s attempt to take WPF (or at least a subset of WPF) outside the Windows desktop and onto other platforms. And with the exception of Windows Phone, this simply isn’t going to happen.
Here’s why. Outside the world of enterprise LOB applications and corporate environments, Microsoft no longer enjoys a monopoly or even a majority in many of its main markets. With mobile devices and the iPad becoming ever more important, Apple and Google now in the game, and who knows what Facebook will do in the next five years, RIAs are very much a three-horse race. This means that Microsoft can no longer afford to ignore open standards, and no longer has the clout to muscle in and enforce its own proprietary standards on everyone either. If it wants to remain competitive, it simply has to adopt them, no matter how technically superior its own alternatives may be. And I doubt that they’d find “embrace, extend and extinguish” quite as effective either. That only works when you can rely on a majority market share: when they don’t have that, if Apple and Google don’t support their proprietary extensions, nobody will use them, and they’ll just fizzle out.
Their decision to give HTML 5 first-class support in Windows 8 is simply a recognition of that market reality. And as developers, we have to make that recognition ourselves too. It’s as simple as that.
@Joshua: There are large numbers of people out there who develop huge applications in not only JavaScript but also other dynamically typed languages such as PHP, Python and Ruby. Facebook is developed mostly in PHP, for instance, and their codebase is huge. As for your point about an Outlook calendar, have you ever come across Zimbra? It’s an open source, totally AJAX, e-mail and collaboration system with a look and feel very much like Microsoft Outlook. We used it at my last job (three years ago now) and it was very impressive then.
Also, there are some big advantages to both the things you consider flaws. Dynamically typed languages can achieve the same results with much less code than static languages, and they are also easier to unit test because you can use techniques such as monkey patching instead of IOC containers to swap out your external dependencies. Also, when a language is interpreted, rather than compiled, it shortens your edit/compile/test loop, which increases productivity far better than linearly because fast response times do a lot to help you stay focused on the task at hand and avoid getting distracted. Yes, you can easily end up with runtime bugs that would otherwise have been caught at compile time, but you can also get programs such as JSLint that can give you static analysis and build-time checking.
James. the man landed on the moon too. Doesn’t mean anybody else really want to do such stupid effort just to LAND on the moon when you can LAND in VEGAS..
Unless u’re a Sadomasochist in this case ok go write anything you develop using html+javascript LMFAO.
i bet James write desktop apps using HTML running as a localhost intranet just to make a point. xDD
In computer engineering EVERYONE who doesn’t know how to program for real love html.. WHY? just like you.. xD just like Mark did.. he couldn’t really write a real c++ program for hardware etc so webpages are good for geeks and geeks are like those in college (engineering) who study hard but never learn more than that jerk who goes out with ppl and are talented in software. real smart not nerd.
geeks use viruses programmed in c/c++ by a real programmer to attack a stupid webpage or computer and then write a HTML website to show off.. like he was a genius programmer.. like the LOSER Assange from wikileaks.. i met him.. he is a totally loser programming.. so he had to go politics where losers are winners.
and You with all bla bla bla… a social network isn’t a ROCKET SCIENCE.. Anybody can do a facebook.. Mark Zuckenberg never was a genius (his roomates didn’t even know how to write a line before started facebook) of software industry and hardware.. but his website had millions of users.. that’s all. this is about users (audience) NOT technology and code.. u have any idea how he got 50 million users? first read the facts james..
i built 2 social networks in 3 weekends just to show a group that website attracts who doesn’t wanna really deal if the difficult of programming.. BTW i did that using HTML JAVAscript Silverlight XAML PHP MySQL ETC ETC.. 3 weekends drinking beers..check one of them: http://www.myfinalclubs.com
so don’t come with this bla bla about html 5 and java.. this is for webpage apps.. Everyone knows.
Doesn’t mean everyone will start landing on the moon because NASA did that once.. that’s just pointless SADO and dumb.. just like the post.
if that was true Steve jobs would drop apple’s sdk and turn the iPad into a web browser which is ridiculous.. and that’s wut u got from apple when they say HTML5 is the standard for them.. FOR WEB BROWSER FOR GODS SAKE.. not for its apps platform xD .. nerd are always nerd..
Warning: this blog is not YouTube and it is not the Daily Mail. I don’t mind people disagreeing with me, or questioning my competence, but if it degenerates into five year olds throwing a hissy fit, I will have to close off comments. Please, keep it coherent.
@Alan: your statement that “anyone can write a Facebook” left me in stitches. Sure, you can build something resembling a basic Facebook wall in a weekend with a few beers, but can you make it scale to 500 million users? Also, how secure could you make it?
People who think that “anyone can build a Facebook” tend to build websites that are peppered with SQL injection vulnerabilities, that store their users’ passwords in plain text, and that fall over by the time their user base gets into three figures because they have unwittingly implemented algorithms with O(en) performance without realising it. HTML 5 versus Silverlight is the least of your problems.
gimme a break.. i think you should learn more about html and javascript and php AND about how facebook code was written[before the first 500 million dollars investment took place] before making such statement.
Boy, ever since the beginning a lot of programmers know how to hack a facebook account EASY PEASY.. currently a lot of newbies are adding themselves to ppl’s account without even being invited. C’mom.. that’s kids stuff…html and javascript is easy to hack by definition.. this isn’t even considered a computer language.. cause it’s not for real.
and SQL injection? passwords in plain text? LMFAO you’re so 2001.. we’re in 2011 my friend.. i can inject an entire script using my own web browser i coded in c#, c++ and java, emule the chrome or ie into it and trick the php two-way communication.
with google Orkut we used to change ppl’s photos using their OWN javascript without even an account registered. and drinking whisky.
And cookies KKK cookies are amazing for us.. that’s like giving the car keys for a kid.
We can even use injection on MySql website.. and that happened last week. xD
And I DARE YOU go to that KID weekend social network and try anything.. i can even give u the server password.. u won’t get nothing from that xD
Maybe it’s hard for you don’t you think? sql injection and storing passwords that can be read in the server side sounds like a joke for me.. Maybe this is just html programmers that think it’s hard to deal with.. ANYONE from real language here have problem with that?
i dont think so. xD
See feelows?
HTML fans are so incompetent in programming that they really think encryption and SQL sanitation is a ROCKET SCIENCE when it is just the ABC for real programmers in a real computer language.
No wonder why there are billions of new TOP EXPERTS in html4/5/infinite + javacrap being born every single day.. like the entire world now are skilled because W3C said so xD
gimme a break.. i think you should learn more about html and javascript and php AND about how facebook code was written[before the first 500 million dollars investment took place] before making such statement.
Boy, ever since the beginning a lot of programmers know how to hack a facebook account EASY PEASY.. currently a lot of newbies are adding themselves to ppl’s account without even being invited. C’mom.. that’s kids stuff…html and javascript are easy to hack by definition.. this isn’t even considered a computer language.. cause it’s not for real.
and SQL injection? passwords in plain text? LMFAO you’re so 2001.. we’re in 2011 my friend.. i can inject an entire script using my own web browser i coded in c#, c++ and java, emule the chrome or ie into it and trick the php two-way communication.
with google Orkut we used to change ppl’s photos using their OWN javascript without even an account registered. and drinking whisky.
And cookies KKK cookies are amazing for us.. that’s like giving the car keys for a kid.
We can even use injection on MySql website.. and that happened last week. xD
And I DARE YOU go to that KID weekend social network and try anything.. i can even give u the server password.. u won’t get nothing from that xD
Maybe it’s hard for you don’t you think? sql injection and storing passwords that can be read in the server side sounds like a joke for me.. Maybe this is just html programmers that think it’s hard to deal with.. ANYONE from real language here have problem with that?
i dont think so. xD
See feelows?
HTML fans are so incompetent in programming that they really think encryption and SQL sanitation is a ROCKET SCIENCE when it is just the ABC for real programmers in a real computer language.
No wonder why there are billions of new TOP EXPERTS in html4/5/infinite + javacrap being born every single day.. like the entire world now are skilled because W3C said so xD
You’d be a lot more convincing if you didn’t insist on sounding like a teenage script kiddie from 4chan. Please, grow up and sober up.
You’re also making two mutually contradictory points here. On the one hand you’re saying that HTML/JavaScript is insecure by its very nature, but on the other hand, you’re also saying that securing a website is beginner stuff. If you want a mature, sensible, balanced, and realistic perspective on the subject, showing what you’re really up against, take a look at Simon Willison’s slideshow, Web Security Horror Stories.
However, in neither case do you address the question of how Silverlight is supposed to make things better, so I’d be inclined to call offtopic on this one.
hanks for link to http://slides.html5rocks.com
The new features HTML features are impressive, hence my concluding gambit “Do I think HTML5 + Javascript will be better than SL == Yes”
However it did managed to crash my Chrome browser 3 times, and send my CPU skyward (HTML5 + JS can never get away from the fact the JS must be interpreted and processed, rather than compiled and optimised). I still think HTML5 has a long long way to go before getting close to what you can already do in Silverlight, my main concern is (similarly to Alan’s point), will this spawn even more poor programming practices, like WebSQL Database, tightly couple logic in JS files or UI specific business logic. Other factors that concern me, is how do you secure down any application and fully protect your source code. I suspect the greatest appeal of HTML5 is to the developers most accustomed to scripting languages (such as Php, JS or even ASP.net) and since these developers tend to be entry level developers I cannot see how the average HTML5 application will come close to anything you can do in SL. Ignoring my concerns of HTML5 encouraging logic back-into the UI (any developer worth their salt should know not to do this) a common approach used by scripting lang developers is to follow a post/response route. By which I mean, HTML applications tend to need twice as many clicks than a winforms app, it more of a mindset thing. Another big concern is the advancements in CSS. The whole separation of style from document sits really well with me (SL follows a similar approach with the use of themes), but CSS seems to be providing more and more application type functionality. A simple example of this would be, in a SL application, you click a button which makes a panel disappear, that panel would be have visibility set to false, or even better disposed (which would allow things to hook into that event). The approach I always see is to set the display to none, or visibility style, but I can overrule styles with ease, and these are styles not inherent properties of the panel. In the SL version you would never be able to see the Panel again no matter what you did.
http://pjd.mscui.net/default.htm is an example of some SL applications which were developed way back on SL 2. Aside from the technical limitations of HTML5 being able to reproduce something like that, think more about whether a HTML5 developer would ever have “done it like that”
If I wanted to create a Google Maps or Gmail type application the I think HTML5 is the answer, if I wanted to create any LOB application which needs any of the following: good latency, robust {some kind of failover}, potentially need integration with client installed software, many things happening on one screen, secure, needs to exactly the same on each machine or needs to perform business logic de-centralised.
The last point is an important one, since business logic should not belong in the UI, but it can still be executed on the client machines (in many cases preferable), SL provides the ability to write the BL once, execute on both client and server, validate things in an occasionally connected mode and keep all rules hidden from the user (they are compiled)
I think both with benefit from each other existence, and maybe HTML6 will be a 1 shoe fits all (Browser, Desktop, Mobile, Tablet, 3D Virtual Controllers [Kinect])
Sorry for the terrible grammar in my previous post, it was supposed to start:
Thanks for link to http://slides.html5rocks.com
The new HTML5 features …….
It pains me to agree with this author but in most of the content I do. It is a terribly poor decision by Microsoft to abandon SL (which they profess they are not but the evidence speaks for itself).
The impact of large entities allowing adoption (e.g. Apple’s restriction of uptake) clearly carves out a method of protection for their individual interest(s).
The “good” is that with Cloud OS’s starting to gain penetration (e.g. Jolicloud) their reign may be at terminal crossroads. Frankly I’m in love with SL and abhore HTML. I have from day one (and I was there). I’m no great fan of XAML either for the record, as debugging it is (as of this writing) laughable.
The world really wants UI and UX to be considered. This is why the asethics of Apple’s product line causes great loyalty. My first introduction to “computer” goes back to punch cards and the Apple blew away classic approach with their product. One might find it interesting to know that much of the idea came from Xerox, not the might S Jobs. Xerox understood this decades ago. UI and UX isn’t trivial.
We are being herded / forced to uptake HTML5. We will only because of options not because it is the best solution… shame really.
Can one theory explain all things MS is saying ?
I propose the following “Standard Model”:
MS is …
* Creating a NET W8 Framework in which they are …
* Replacing DirectX with the HTML5 Rendering Engine.
* Replacing MSIL with Javascript.
* Implementing Silverlight/WPF/XNA (http://jsil.org/) in a layer on top of HTML5 (not side-by-side with HTML5).
* Viewing the HTML5 Browsers as “Plugins” for the different Operating Systems and adding also Out-of-Browser (OOB) functionality for each OS.
Can you imagine the impact on portability ?
H.Dolder
http://www.hdolder.com/CutBSK6fN.htm
z
i’m pretty bad PHP developer with a decent grasp of xhtml, average JQUERY skills and have good people skills. I’m earning over $100,000 per year. I bet that’s a lot more than you most of you sad “it has to be a compiled language” 30 year old virgins. In a few years I will have retired and moved on with my other businesses (all funded through my less than average web skills). Meanwhile you saddos will still be arguing about the latest version of some crappy plugin. AHHAHHAHA night night suckers.
@Paul: please see my responses to @Alan, above.
Name-calling on this blog will not be tolerated. Any further comments which do so will be deleted on sight.
It is unbelievable that so many people wasted time and energy to get familiar with Silverlight which was doomed to fail from the beginning. Since a long time the name “Microsoft” is not longer a guarantee for success. When the Microsoft fanboys will start to understand that?
Guys,
I am late to the chat, but here are my thoughts.
Let us not forget the basics.
Application = UI + Processing + Storage
We are only fighting on UI. No application is complete, without the 3 tiers.
Since UI is updated with the processing and as processing is update with the storage, we need to think which combination is best all together. Not to fight over one tier.
So let us think. Could, HTML5 collaborate with any processing (Services) technology without much coupling?
Also application development takes only 20% in the game. 80% would be maintenance.
If we have 20 technologies in an application the application is bound die soon as companies may be able to pay for 20 programmers for development not 5 for maintenance.
Let us think in that line as well
Thanks,
Fact Pandit
PS: To be honest with you all I did not like HTML5 slogan
HTML5 = HTML + CSS +JS
Why do I need to know 3 different things for doing one job?
btw.. take a look at this: http://www.myfinalclubs.com/Home.php
it is HTML+java+css
@FactPandit
You wrote: Why do I need to know 3 different things for doing one job?
You also wrote: Application = UI + Processing + Storage
I write: think before you speak, unless you enjoy foot in your mouth
I think is a big mistake from Microsoft if they discontinue Silverlight. It is an awesome tool even better than Flash (I have worked with both of them). If you want to make HTML5+JavaScript+CSS3 that is the developer’s choice, but if you want to use Silverlight 5 or 6 or 7 it is also a choice. Why go to a single monolitic solution? If MS doesn’t want to continue with Silverlight then give it to the community as open source and we will make it the best thing in the world. Give us choices, not force us into HTML 5 + Javascript. HTML is a standard. The HTML Canvas is not by far close to the power of Silverlight Canvas. It is just a bad decision from a Microsoft manager and it seems there are MANY bad managers in Microsoft, when they do not back up their employees and efforts as I know from many friends who work there.
Microsoft = GREAT developers but the worst managers in the world. That is why the company sucks. Without a real leader with vision
Yes
HTML5, CSS, JQuery el al for public facing web sites and mobile devices
Silverlight (WPF) and the .net stack for LOB.
I think MS recognise they are losing out in the mobile device market so it’s a good move for them to unify their next OS with their mobile OS as far as development goes. Maybe a consistent look and feel as well.
As yet the HTML/JQuery development environment is poor, lack of tooling etc.
VS2010, 1st class product for developing Silverlight (WPF)
Compare that to developing with Objective C on a Mac
On Monday 5th September I’m starting a new 12 – 18 month Silverlight 4 (will migrate to SL5) project. A major bank, they wouldn’t invest in this if SL was dead would they.
Most developers are concerned with LOB apps not every developer is a gamer/mobile app developer. (Well in the UK that seems the case)
So far what I’ve seen from HTML5 web sites is gimmicky IPhone 4 looking stuff, all a bit samey and not that creative.
The only thing of interested in my mind coming out of HTML5 is web sockets, and that the holy grail of web LOB is close at hand i.e. push technology.
Don’t forget which ever “view” technology one choices you’re still going to have to have server technologies e,g, Java , .NET supplying the data.
Now what ever happened to Apples server technologies…hmmm?