LAS VEGAS--Silverlight was born as a alternative to Adobe Flash, but it's grown beyond the desktop browser and now (finally) finds a home on Windows Phone.

For developers, it's a new way to create fluid (and very attractive) mobile apps. In conjunction with Microsoft's new "panoramic" paradigm for Windows Phone, what you get is an extremely fluid way to move within an app. Swiping left and right is seamless and very fast. The bullet points:

  • Hardware-accelerated video with multicodec digital rights management (DRM) and Internet Information Services Smooth Streaming support
  • Vector and bitmap graphics with perspective 3-D
  • Multitouch support with Accelerometer, an intuitive control that responds to motion
  • Deep Zoom support for rich reading experiences
  • Camera and microphone support
  • Notification Service for pushing information to the phone, regardless of whether or not an application is running
  • Integration with the core Windows Phone 7 Series experience features such as hubs

For end users, it means an immersive experience that's long been missing from Windows Mobile. Examples shown today at MIX10 included the new AP Mobile app, the stock Windows Phone photo gallery, and -- believe it or not -- an honest-to-goodness 3D Xbox Live game, running right on the Windows Phone.