The wait for the next iteration of Silverlight is almost over, Microsoft has officially confirmed. The Redmond company has indicated that Silverlight 3 will be released on July 10, 2009, a tad over a month from now. In this context, the software giant has managed to take its alternative to Adobe Flash from version 2 to v3 in /less than a year. Silverlight 2 was released to web in mid-October 2008 marking the first major evolutionary step for the technology designed to power Rich Internet Applications and interactive experiences on the web. (via Mary Jo Foley)

Microsoft's newly found philosophy to underpromise and overachieve is by no means limited to Windows 7. The software giant did set a delivery deadline by the end of 2009 for Silverlight 3, but a mid-year launch beats even the most optimistic expectations. Silverlight 3 was only released into Beta at the Redmond company's web-centric conference MIX09 in Las Vegas in March of this year.

At that time, Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, .NET Developer Division, revealed that Microsoft had built over 50 new features into Silverlight 3. Among the most important are support for Silverlight 3 applications to run outside of the browser, a boost to video performance, a new level of quality for content, and improvements designed to streamline the development process based on Silverlight. Speaking of development, Microsoft will launch not only Silverlight 3 on July 10, but also the tools necessary for developers to build content. Silverlight 3 is scheduled to share the launch limelight with Expression Studio 3.

Silverlight 3 will bring to the table enhanced video and audio: with live and on-demand true HD (720p+) Smooth Streaming, but also support for H.264/Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) Audio, and full HD playback. The successor of Silverlight 2 now enables developers to offer more to users, including 3D graphics, and to take advantage of Pixel Shader and animation effects, Bitmap caching, a new Bitmap API, etc. Silverlight 3 will also constantly check, when launched, for new versions available from Microsoft and will perform auto-updates when necessary.