Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) could be preparing to terminate the development of its Silverlight platform, a web application framework for rich web design. While the company has not officially confirmed or denied this, prominent Microsoft reporter Mary Jo Foley recently wrote about multiple unconfirmed reports that the upcoming release of Silverlight (Silverlight 5) would be the last major release for the platform. For a company that thrives on well-publicized multi-year product roadmaps, this is somewhat telling about the future of Silverlight.

In addition, Adobe's (NASDAQ: ADBE) shock announcement earlier this week that it is terminating the development of Mobile Flash further fueled speculation of Silverlight's imminent demise; Silverlight is often compared to Flash, after all. In ditching Mobile Flash, Adobe has said that it wants to focus its efforts on HTML 5, which Microsoft previously acknowledged as the future of the web.

Of course, it may not matter if Microsoft stops rolling out new Silverlight releases on an annual or biannual basis. Given the continued focus on XAML and the ability for developers to use their XAML skills, the lack of new Silverlight releases may not actually matter.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at ZDNet
- check out this article at DailyTech
- check out this article at The Register

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