What else could I use Silverlight for besides Windows Phone 7 Apps?

Question

One of the reasons why I don't want want to go the iPhone development path is because there isn't much to do with Objective-C language. You either develop iPhone or Mac apps with it.

If I go the Windows Phone 7 development path, can I apply my Silverlight skills in other areas besides the mobile phone development? Is Silverlight useful in the financial industry? Or IT industry?

If something is unclear, comment below and I'll update my question accordingly.

update: After reading all the answers, going with Silverlight seems like a way to go. Thanks everyone.

Answer 1

I think Silverlight (and WPF, which is closely related) are mainly user interface libraries, but you can use them in quite a few ways:

• Silverlight was originally targeted at developing rich client-side web applications (that is, run in a browser like Flash). There are plugins for many web browsers and it is quite good in this scenarion.

• Recently, you can also use out-of-browser exection model, which allows you to develop ordinary windows applications in Silverlight (though they stil run in a security sandbox and are in some ways restricted).

• Moreover, Silverlight is to some extent compatible with WPF, which is a complex framework for developing desktop user interfaces. By learning Silverlight, you'll learn a lot about WPF too and you'll be able to use it.