Microsoft
announces new rich Internet applications development and streaming
media features; company outlines plans for supporting Windows, Mac and
Linux tools for developing Silverlight applications.

Redmond, Wash. - Oct. 13, 2008 - Microsoft Corp. today announced the
availability of Silverlight 2, one of the industry's most comprehensive
and powerful solutions for the creation and delivery of applications
and media experiences through a Web browser. Silverlight 2 delivers a
wide range of new features and tools that enable designers and
developers to better collaborate while creating more accessible, more
discoverable and more secure user experiences.

Microsoft also announced further support of open source communities by
funding advanced Silverlight development capabilities with the Eclipse
Foundation's integrated development environment (IDE) and by providing
new controls to developers with the Silverlight Control Pack (SCP)
under the Microsoft Permissive License.

"We launched Silverlight just over a year ago, and already one in four
consumers worldwide has access to a computer with Silverlight already
installed," said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET
Developer Division at Microsoft. "Silverlight represents a radical
improvement in the way developers and designers build applications on
the Web. This release will further accelerate our efforts to make
Silverlight, Visual Studio and Microsoft Expression Studio the
preeminent solutions for the creation and delivery of media and rich
Internet application experiences."

Silverlight adoption continues to grow rapidly, with penetration in
some countries approaching 50 percent and a growing ecosystem that
includes more than 150 partners and tens of thousands of applications.
During the 17 days of the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing,
NBCOlympics.com, powered by Silverlight, had more than 50 million
unique visitors, resulting in 1.3 billion page views, 70 million video
streams and 600 million minutes of video watched, increasing the
average time on the site (from 3 minutes to 27 minutes) and Silverlight
market penetration in the U.S. by more than 30 percent. Broadcasters in
France (France Televisions SA), the Netherlands (NOS), Russia
(Sportbox.ru) and Italy (RAI) also chose Silverlight to deliver
Olympics coverage online. In addition, leading companies such as CBS
College Sports, Blockbuster Inc., Hard Rock Cafe International Inc.,
Yahoo! Japan, AOL LLC, Toyota Motor Corp., HSN Inc. and Tencent Inc.
are building their next-generation experiences using Silverlight.

"CBS College Sports Network streams more than 20,000 hours of live
content annually for our 150-plus college and university official
athletic partners, so we demand that our video player environment be
both consumer friendly and robust," said Tom Buffolano, general manager
and vice president, Digital Programming and Subscription, CBS
Interactive-Sports. "Silverlight was the perfect choice to help develop
and power our new, exclusive online collegiate sports experience, as it
features the best price and performance of any streaming media solution
on the market today. Silverlight also gives us the most flexibility in
expanding the product in the future as we develop embeddable players
and mobile platforms and explore new advertising integration
opportunities."

Continued Commitment to Openness and Interoperability

Microsoft announced plans to support additional tools for developing
Silverlight applications by providing funding to Soyatec, a
France-based IT solutions provider and Eclipse Foundation member, to
lead a project to integrate advanced Silverlight development
capabilities into the Eclipse IDE. Soyatec plans to release the project
under the Eclipse Public License Version 1.0 on SourceForge and submit
it to the Eclipse Foundation as an open Eclipse project.

Microsoft also will release the Silverlight Control Pack and publish on
MSDN the technical specification for the Silverlight Extensible
Application Markup Language (XAML) vocabulary. The SCP, which will
augment the powerful built-in control set in Silverlight, will be
released under the Microsoft Permissive License, an Open Source
Initiative-approved license, and includes controls such as DockPanel,
ViewBox, TreeView, Accordion and AutoComplete. The Silverlight XAML
vocabulary specification, released under the Open Specification Promise
(OSP), will better enable third-party ISVs to create products that can
read and write XAML for Silverlight.

"The Silverlight Control Pack under the Microsoft Permissive License
really addresses the needs of developers by enabling them to learn how
advanced controls are authored directly from the high-quality Microsoft
implementation," said Miguel de Icaza, vice president, Engineering,
Novell. "By using the OSP for the Silverlight vocabulary, they further
solidify their commitment to interoperability. I am impressed with the
progress Microsoft continues to make, and we are extremely satisfied
with the support for Moonlight and the open source community."

Beyond funding development in the free Eclipse IDE, Microsoft currently
delivers state-of-the-art tools for Silverlight with Visual Studio 2008
and Expression Studio 2. In addition, support is now extended to Visual
Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, which is a free download.

"We wanted to build a cutting-edge, rich Internet application that
enables our customers to search our vast database of content and
metadata so they can access movie reviews, watch high-quality movie
trailers, and either rent or buy movies from our new MovieLink
application," said Keith Morrow, chief information officer,
Blockbuster. "Because Silverlight 2 now includes several new rich
controls such as data grids and advanced skinning capabilities, as well
as support for the .NET Framework, allowing us to access our existing
Web services, we were able to easily maintain the high standards of the
Blockbuster brand and bring the application to market in record time."

Delivering Features for Next-Generation Web Experiences

Highlights of new Silverlight 2 features include the following:
• .NET Framework support with a rich base class library. This is a compatible subset of the full .NET Framework.
• Powerful built-in controls. These include DataGrid, ListBox, Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar controls and more.
• Advanced skinning and templating support. This makes it easy to customize the look and feel of an application.
• Deep zoom. This enables unparalleled interactivity and navigation of ultrahigh resolution imagery.
• Comprehensive networking support. Out-of-the-box support allows
calling REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and standard HTTP services, enabling
users to create applications that easily integrate with existing
back-end systems.
• Expanded .NET Framework language support. Unlike other runtimes,
Silverlight 2 supports a variety of programming languages, including
Visual Basic, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby, making it easier
for developers already familiar with one of these languages to
repurpose their existing skill sets.
• Advanced content protection. This now includes Silverlight DRM,
powered by PlayReady, offering robust content protection for connected
Silverlight experiences.
• Improved server scalability and expanded advertiser support. This
includes new streaming and progressive download capabilities, superior
search engine optimization techniques, and next-generation in-stream
advertising support.
• Vibrant partner ecosystem. Visual Studio Industry Partners such as
ComponentOne LLC, Infragistics Inc. and Telerik Inc. are providing
products that further enhance developer capabilities when creating
Silverlight applications using Visual Studio.
• Cross-platform and cross-browser support. This includes support for
Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari and Windows Internet Explorer.

More information and details about Silverlight 2 are available by
reading the Silverlight 2 fact sheet at
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/silverlight/default.mspx.

Get Silverlight 2

Silverlight 2 will be available for download on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight. Customers already using a
previous version of Silverlight will be automatically upgraded to
Silverlight 2.

A technology preview of the Soyatec project is available today at
http://www.eclipse4sl.org, with a complete version available in second
half of 2009.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses
realize their full potential.

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