"Interviewer: "HTML or Silverlight, what is Microsoft's lead strategy for developing rich internet applications? Silverlight, HTML5, or acquiring Adobe?"
Ballmer: "If you want to do something that is universal, there is no question, the world is going HTML5... The world is just pushing down that HTML5 path, and so are we... What we've really done [with Silverlight] in very good ways is to repurpose it as an important part of the client platform, so yes, you will embrace HTML5, but it's also clear people want client apps... So we're dedicated to Silverlight, but with a little different concept, and we're embracing HTML5."
HTML5 support on the windows phone would mean Windows phone devs could support other phones, and would unify the market. Fracturing it helps increase the value of niche apps, while unification would only level the playing field and leave the windows phone at a disadvantage.
That's the sort of strategy that works when you're a dominant player. WP7 needs to go the other way, making it possible to write cross-platform apps, so that devs will say, "Ooh, here's a better to make my next app!" instead of, "Eww, do I really want to support yet another platform?".
Microsoft acts like it is the dominant player because most of its employees genuinely believe it's a question of time for their inherently superior technology becomes dominant.
It also means that WinPhone7 users won't have access to a rapidly growing library of HTML5 content. That's quite a disadvantage for a nascent mobile platform, especially now that HTML5 = mobile web thanks to widespread support from Android and iDevices, among others.
I cannot see them giving up client-Side Silverlight that easily; controlling the whole stack is an advantage for them just as it is for Adobe (if Flash is king, Adobe sells tons of developer tools, and possibly licenses on mobile devices) or Oracle (with java).
So, I expect their strategy is to have a full Silverlight path where supported, with a fallback to HTML/SVG/Canvas when needed. If so, Windows 7 Phone phones would currently have more need for a good Silverlight implementation than for good/full HTML5 support.
If Windows 7 Phone phones manage to gain traction, the business strategy could then well be to decrease effort on the HTML5 fallback path.
Has everyone forgotten that the iPhone didn't support copy-paste, at first?
Edit: [completing my thought]
Apple was ridiculed for it, though; however, it's more evidence that the phone isn't 100% complete, and that Microsoft wants a tool out there to show the world what they've made. Perhaps then, as requests are made concerning the phone, they'll incorporate those, not to mention adding features they, themselves want. (It won't take long to want copy-paste).
As a second thought I had while extending this post. Startups are encouraged to release early and release often. Releasing early, I imagine, comes with "releasing a not 100% complete and not even completely polished" subtext to it), why are large corporations slammed for it? I thought we praise companies like Google because they similar to a startup, and yet we scoff at companies like Microsoft when they may very well be doing something similar. Admittedly, I've not followed Windows Phone 7 very closely, as I'm pleased with my current smart phone (Droid original), so perhaps they've not alluded to this being the end-all, be-all for their phone. Given how XP came to be, though, we really should be prepared for their original version to not be perfect, and it take a few (free) updates to get it up to something very good.
So long as I'm rambling, I should add that, if carriers start modding the heck out of the operating system to the point that a user can't download the patches that Microsoft comes out with, producing an incomplete product is a very, very bad idea for them (or maybe for the carriers) -- but I don't want to start the carriers versus phone-makers versus software-developers war, again.
End my two cents on things related to the subject.
I feel bad for the MS devs, but from a consumer perspective, this is how it works:
It's 2010. If you start a television production company today, you won't come out with a black and white CRT using the excuse "has everyone forgotten that Panasonic didn't support color HD TVs at first?"
You have a point, though I would liken this lack of a feature to something more like "this blu ray player can't connect to the internet via WPA2." It's not entirely essential to its operation, and an upgrade could be around the corner.
[Hacker News bug report: I had to come to treeface's comment page to reply to this message. I wasn't allowed to on the main thread]
Most likely it was the time it took you to go to his comments page that made the difference. When comment threads reach a certain level of activity, the HN software starts putting a delay before you can reply. I believe it's meant to curb useless chatter and flamewars.
I meant I feel bad for them because they're expected to crank out an Android/iOS competitor in an unreasonably short period of time. For some of them, this is probably the crowning achievement of their programming careers, yet people like us are sitting around complaining because they don't have a feature that took iOS developers quite a long time to bring to market.
I certainly don't feel bad for them in a general sense. They're probably paid pretty well and I would imagine they have an otherwise great working environment.
Gotcha, that's cool. Sorry, I miss-read your comment.
I just think it's time we start to view C# with a bit more respect/understanding. It's a great language and Anders Hejlsberg doesn't get enough credit for what he's done (and is doing) as C# continues to evolve; ditto Miguel and the Mono team..
MS devs deserve sympathy for the shortsightedness of their managers, who thought that Windows Mobile was good enough for a market that they didn't know was competitive. Micorsoft's developers may have been handed an awfully short timeline for Windows Phone 7, but the company as a whole had plenty of warning.
Won't everyone just end up using Opera Mobile/Mini or whatever other mobile browsers become available for Windows Phone 7 instead of the default if it doesn't meet expectations? None of the serious users of the current types of Windows Mobile phones I know use the crippled versions of IE they contain. I know this is supposedly an entirely new idea, I still see this happening.. especially when customers will expect browsers as nice as iOS, Android, WebOS, Maemo, and even newer Blackberries...
Does it however strategically affect WP7's strategic future?
Look, the way I see it, WP7 is barely months (weeks?) old. To expect HTML5 support when 'HTML5' is in still flux is silly. MS are still working on their desktop support for goodness sake.
Lack of copy-and-paste demonstrates clearly that MS couldn't get everything in to v1.0. And to impute strategic motives is reaching.
The fact that Microsoft is still working on desktop HTML5 doesn't mean a thing to a smartphone customer when every other popular smartphone has it already.
For the same reason, it's hard to convince myself that I'm being "silly" for having an expectation as a web developer that a new mobile OS platform in 2010 would have decent HTML5 support. What a step backwards for the mobile web.
I'm not following Phone7 closely enough to have noticed that. So, if the absence of HTML5 is not a "strategic" decision what is it?
I don't mean to be inflammatory, but it strikes me as being a completely barking decision. The world and its developers' army is writing for HTML5, especially in the mobile space. Folk are openly talking about dedicated apps going the way of the dodo, and that's because of what HTML5 brings. Sure it may not all be here today, but get the weight of the World's developers behind you and, frankly, nothing is going to stop it.
I do expect WP7 to support HTML5. I'm utterly amazed that it doesn't.
Does Microsoft really believe that it is bigger than the Internet, the mobile space, and all those that develop for it? Has it lost its way so totally and utterly? Has it lost its marbles?
> Does Microsoft really believe that it is bigger than the Internet, the mobile space, and all those that develop for it? Has it lost its way so totally and utterly? Has it lost its marbles?
IMO, windsurfer didn't 'point out' anything - he/she speculated as to why WP7 didn't emerge from the womb with HTML5 support, and expressed the speculation more as an assertion of fact.
"Interviewer: "HTML or Silverlight, what is Microsoft's lead strategy for developing rich internet applications? Silverlight, HTML5, or acquiring Adobe?"
Ballmer: "If you want to do something that is universal, there is no question, the world is going HTML5... The world is just pushing down that HTML5 path, and so are we... What we've really done [with Silverlight] in very good ways is to repurpose it as an important part of the client platform, so yes, you will embrace HTML5, but it's also clear people want client apps... So we're dedicated to Silverlight, but with a little different concept, and we're embracing HTML5."