State of Silverlight: A Shared Windows Hosting Provider Perspective

As a shared Microsoft Windows hosting provider that offers hosting for Silverlight-powered web applications, the team at DiscountASP.NET was interested in understanding the market share and adoption of Silverlight. We conducted some research but we found that there was not much data on Silverlight adoption.

While we found some statistics on the numbers of PCs and browsers that can consume Silverlight and Flash experiences, we did not find any data on the adoption of Silverlight within web applications and web sites – those sites that are delivering the Silverlight and Flash experience.

Due to this lack of data and in order to provide the community with some new data points, our team at DiscountASP.NET decided to conduct our own research into Silverlight adoption among the web sites that we host.  As one of the largest ASP.NET web hosting providers with over 30,000 clients worldwide, DiscountASP.NET is uniquely positioned to help gain better knowledge on technology adoption with a rich customer sample size. In February 2010, we conducted a survey asking our customers about the technologies that they use to power their web sites and their interest level in upcoming new Microsoft technologies.

We present the results of our findings in the research paper below. Examining the data collected by different sample segmentation views, we discuss global technology adoption trends as well as the enthusiasm level of new technologies and their implications for future technology adoption.

Let us know what you think. Here is a link to the research paper:

State of Silverlight: A Shared Windows Hosting Provider Perspective:
Global Implications for Silverlight Adoption and Technology Adoption Strategy

Takeshi Eto
VP Marketing and Business Development