There has been a lot of worry with the unveiling of Windows 8, for developers — that is. The reason being is that Steven Sinofsky revealed that Windows 8, codename Windows 8, will be able to run applications programmed using HTML5 and JavaScript, but not much was mentioned about the future of Silverlight or the .NET Framework in regards to these new “immersive” applications coming in Windows 8.

These worries were not without merit, as Microsoft was locking discussion topics about this issue on MSDN, along with them being very quiet about the issue as well.

“HTML5 and Silverlight are complementary technologies serving different needs, and Microsoft is committed to both,” said a Microsoft spokesperson, in regards to my question about whether applications using this newer Metro-like interface will be able to be created using using Silverlight/.NET.

After all, Sinofsky did say that the applications demonstrated running on Windows 8 were running in Internet Explorer 10, and that, “The browser that we showed runs Silverlight and it will still run on the desktop.” The Microsoft spokesperson I talked to also pointed me to the video transcript of Sinofsky at D9, so if D9′s transcript contained anything inaccurate, Microsoft wouldn’t be referring to it themselves.

Another question is: “What about tools for HTML5?” After all, Microsoft does provide excellent development tools for Silverlight/.NET in the form of Visual Studio, but currently when developing HTML5 “applications” you are left with good old Notepad. Many developers would simply laugh out loud if they were told to use such “tools” to create tools for the next generation of Windows, but I was also pointed by the Microsoft spokesperson to a recent blog post on the Silverlight blog talking about HTML5 and Silverlight. In the blog post is concluded with, “over the coming months we’ll be  particularly demonstrative of our emphasis on HTML5, in Internet Explorer and in tools.”

Well, looking back we can see that this blog post may have been an allusion to that of what was recently announced with Windows 8. We have yet to see any “tools” for developing HTML5 “applications,” but we may be seeing that soon, or more likely at the BUILD conference this September.

Microsoft announced the next version of Silverlight, along with releasing a beta of Silverlight 5. So what’s new in the soon to be Silverlight 5?

• GPU support for hardware decode and H.264, allowing better performance on lower powered devices.
• TrickPlay – allows videos to be played at different speeds, and also fast forwarding and rewinding.
• Digital rights management updates, allowing seamless transitions between different DRM sources.
• Enhanced text rendering, and support for OpenType.
• Less network latency, now networking is done on a background thread.
• 64-bit operating system support.

That’s just a few of the many features, and you can see a whole list on The Future of Microsoft Silverlight page.

Even though Microsoft is starting to become more standards-friendly with Internet Explorer, Microsoft will continue to improve Silverlight, even though they have said themselves they are deemphasizing it. After all, applications which run on Windows Phone use Silverlight, and to stop improving that platform would be detrimental to the new mobile platform.

Paul Thurrott of Windows Phone Secrets and WinSuperSite.com has revealed what he knows about the updates coming for Windows Phone in 2011.

First update: “No Donuts”

Thurrott says that a Windows Phone update codenamed “NoDo” will RTM in January, though it won’t ship until early February.

The first update will include copy & paste, support for the Qualcomm 7×30 chipset (which has improved 3D and multimedia performance), CDMA location stack and numerous software fixes.

Major update: “Mango”

Last month we got news of a rumored massive update for Windows Phone, which would make Windows Phone 7 become Windows Phone 7.5, supposedly.

Thurrott confirms that this update would bring Internet Explorer 9 to Windows Phone (which would bring the rendering engine Trident 5 to the browser), HTML5 support, Silverlight in the browser and gesture support as well.

Currently the build number is “75xx” which suggests it would indeed be called Windows Phone 7.5, but says it currently calls itself Windows Phone 7.2. He goes on to say the branch called the “entertainment” branch which suggests other updates revolving around, obviously, entertainment.

Please understand that this is not necessarily the next update after “NoDo,” this is simply a major update for Windows Phone in the future, but there could be more updates in between.

Windows Phone at CES

Sadly Steve Ballmer didn’t announce much of anything for Windows Phone at CES. No new sales figures, no updates, no anything (well, Kindle for Windows Phone is here now).

Windows Phone was demonstrated during Steve Ballmer’s keynote, which many thought was odd as they already introduced Windows Phone, and as stated, it wasn’t like anything new was announced.

Many rumors have been floating around about updates for Windows Phone 7, including Microsoft detailing a bigger update for the platform in February, but we now have some more tips.

Mary-Jo Foley on the All About Microsoft blog is reporting that Windows Phone 7 “Mango” would add HTML5 and Silverlight to the browser on the mobile platform.

The update in January is still said to be the copy and paste update, but the first major update wouldn’t come until sometime this summer (August or September), according to Foley’s sources.

This major update is codenamed “Mango” and will basically be Windows Phone OS 7.5, and may even be named as such. The update precedes Windows Phone 8, so we should start hearing rumors about WP8 soon enough, great.

“Mango” is said to bring HTML5 and Silverlight to the browser, as previously stated. Currently applications are created using Silverlight, but Silverlight in the browser would be just like Flash, it would allow Silverlight on the web to run, so you would be able to watch Netflix videos through the browser. However, seeing as there is a Netflix app, there would be no reason

Foley also says she would not be surprised if more enterprise functionality would be added in this update as well. Even the Microsoft executives said Windows Phone 7 focused mainly on consumers, which is great, except for the fact that enterprises won’t adopt it without such functionality.

None of this information about a major update for Windows Phone 7 has been confirmed by Microsoft.

Edit: Forgot to add that the “Mango” update would also add Far Eastern language support along with other features and functionality.

Further reading:

• Microsoft said to detail second Windows Phone 7 update in February – todayinwindows.com

WinRumors is reporting that sources familiar with the matter (where have we heard that before?) say that Steve Ballmer is set to detail the second update for Windows Phone 7 at Mobile World Congress during his keynote.

According to the source that spoke to WinRumors, the update will be significant, which if true, Microsoft will open up several new APIs to allow greater multi-tasking, in-app downloads and better customization for end users. Microsoft is reportedly sending this update to testers, one of which said “the update includes some great new features for developers, Windows Phone 7 apps in 2011 will certainly become more interesting.”

The update in January will be a small one, contrary to original reports, and will include some simple bug fixes and copy and paste to Windows Phone 7, which is well wanted, but not that massive update we all thought.

Silverlight 4 for Windows Phone

Another rumor (well, this is more credible, as it isn’t a rumor so much as a hint) includes a possible Silverlight update for Windows Phone 7 as well, which could bring Windows Phone 7 up-to-date with Silverlight on Windows. This would allow Windows Phone applications to offer even richer applications, as Silverlight is the main development framework for creating applications for the platform.

This hint was dropped during a recent Channel 9 interview where Brian Keller (Senior Technical Evangelist for Visual Studio application life cycle management of Microsoft) said “I think we are saving those, for say another event. If only there was a massive event in Barcelona on mobile phones and or other events in the future,” after being asked about an update for Silverlight on Windows Phone.

Internet Explorer 9 for Windows Phone

Well, maybe not Internet Explorer 9, but Microsoft does plan to do a “major overhaul of standard support and new approaches to make significant advances in performance, power consumption and bandwidth utilization.” Which will be great, we could finally have both Internet Explorer for Windows and Internet Explorer for Windows Phone be on par with one another standards wise.

Currently Internet Explorer for Windows Phone is halfway between IE7 and IE8 according to Wikipedia.

Most of this is all rumors (except the Silverlight update), so we shall find out next year whether these rumors turn into something more.

Further reading:

• Microsoft begins pushing out copy & paste Windows Phone 7 update to developer devices – winrumors.com
• Windows Phone 7 copy and paste update demonstrated on video – winrumors.com
• Microsoft planning ‘major overhaul’ of Internet Explorer in next Windows Phone release – winrumors.com