Let's review what we know:
- Apple is opening up the iPhone (and iPod Touch) to all developers. To quote Steve Jobs:
"We want native 3rd party apps on the iPhone"
- Microsoft showed a demo of Silverlight running on a Windows Mobile device at last year's Mix in 'Vegas. Ongoing comments from various developers have shown that there will be a mobile release for Silverlight - but no-one has commented on when or how this will happen.
- I asked Scott Guthrie at Mix in London whether Silverlight would be available on the iPhone, to which he replied that Apple was not allowing 3rd party apps on the phone. Clearly, that's changed.
- Silverlight is Microsoft's first real attempt to have true cross platform development. They're even supporting the Moonlight initiative.
- Also demo'd at Mix in London was a Silverlight app that didn't require the browser to run...
- We also know that Apple is willing to work with Microsoft, as we have Silverlight on Safari already
Now - what can we gather from this. Put aside the Microhoonanigans for a while, in which Microsoft is desperately trying to revive an online strategy and be relevant...
If they could convince Apple to allow them onto the iPhone, it seems they have a much bigger slice of a much bigger pie.
Scoble is already speculating that Google is quite happy to let Microsoft and Yahoo fight it out, as they have their eyes on the real prize - mobile apps.
Generally speaking - the market for mobile applications are still in it's infancy, but you already have a situation where most people have more than one phone - so the potential is huge.
So, can Microsoft pull this off? More importantly, is anyone in the big house even thinking that this is strategically important? You would think so - given their recent win with Sony Ericsson. If not - that's why they're making desperate bids for Flickr...
This will be a great start in effectively countering Google's Android.
Of course - only time will tell, but what if it were true....
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