What has the future in store for Silverlight? Silverlight has been pushed side-by-side with Microsoft’s live services for developers. Microsoft is further opening up API's (application program interfaces) for its most popular search engine, for Virtual Earth, for its instant messaging service, and for other services, under benevolent, but not unlimited licensing terms. These indispensable services will allow the creation of attractive and interesting online applications that take an advantage of existing Microsoft networks and resources.

Nik Cubrilovic says, "My personal opinion is that Silverlight is great and that Microsoft has done very well to bring .NET to the browser (almost all browsers)." Silverlight enables the display of high-definition video files. Streaming large media files is dearer, but Microsoft will host Silverlight media files and applications. This will be a great help for smaller developers to deliver large and high definition files fast and reliably, without paying content distribution network fees. Microsoft promises reliable 700 kbps throughput for media files, and free distribution of all content on its network for one year. After that phase, distribution will be free up to 1 million streamed minutes a month. You can find more information here.