Microsoft Partners Don't Expect A Flood Of iPhone Apps
Now available as a free App Store download, Seadragon Mobile allows users to browse large collections of images on the iPhone and zoom in and out using finger taps. Seadragon uses Microsoft's deep zoom technology and is based on the Photosynth system for patching images together to create a 3-D environment.
Seadragon's initial focus is on images, because "they're really easy for people to understand," said Seadragon developer Ben Vanik in a video interview with Channel 10.
However, Seadragon can be extended to other kinds of data, and is especially well suited to cloud computing scenarios involving large volumes of data, according to Vanik. "If you can think of a data type, this could be applied to it," Vanik told Channel 10.
Microsoft developers are chomping at the bit to develop mobile apps with Silverlight For Mobile, but Microsoft doesn't plan to launch Silverlight Mobile until sometime next year. Channel partners expect any eventual Microsoft iPhone development story to have Silverlight For Mobile at its core, so today's launch of Seadragon came as a surprise to many developers.
Microsoft is reportedly in the process of building its own mobile applications marketplace -- codenamed "Skymarket" -- and some have speculated that Microsoft could launch it along with Windows Mobile 7 as early as 2009.
Microsoft has yet to develop Seadragon for Windows Mobile, but that shouldn't be interpreted as Microsoft suddenly shifting significant resources to the iPhone platform, says Scott Stanfield, CEO of Vertigo Software, a firm that worked with Microsoft's Live Labs team in the development of Seadragon.
"The problem is, as an app development platform, the iPhone is foreign to Microsoft developers," said Stanfield, who predicts Microsoft will soon bring Seadragon to Windows Mobile.
Tim Huckaby, CEO of solution provider InterKnowlogy, describes the programming interface for the iPhone as "nightmarish" compared to .Net, but says he's happy to see Microsoft launch Seadragon on the platform.
"Ultimately, Seadragon is just a cool control that allows you to zoom in on pictures with amazing performance and resolution. But it's also a bold predictor of what's coming with Silverlight For Mobile," Huckaby said.