I know it seems like I’m becoming an Apple fanboy but I’m really not.  They just happen to be on a hot streak right now and my purpose on this blog is to take lessons from the people doing smart things in the technology industry.  So that leads to increased Apple talk.

Which brings me to this latest rumor recently posted by Barrons…

Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with tiny Global Equities Research, contends that 7 minutes of the June 7 keynote by Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been blocked off for a presentation by Microsoft (MSFT) to talk about Visual Studio 2010, the company’s suite of development tools. Chowdhry says the new version of VS will allow developers to write native applications for the iPhone, iPad and Mac OS. And here’s the kicker: he thinks Microsoft’s presentation could be given by none other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. (Or if not, at least Bob Muglia, who runs Microsoft’s server and tools business.)

Now if this is true the most likely scenario is Silverlight being ported to the two Apple platforms.  Microsoft just released Visual Studio 2010 a few weeks ago and there’s no Apple support in sight.  But Silverlight is a technology that was made to run on all platforms (being it’s Micrsoft’s answer to Flash) and is also a focus of VS 2010.

More importantly Silverlight is FANSTASTIC technology.  Microsoft has iterated quickly on it to the point where it now matches Adobe’s Flash almost feature for feature and is a lot friendlier to work. 

But it’s what this move would do for Apple that is really interesting.  Consider the following…

1.  It defuses the Flash complaints.  If Apple supports Silverlight they can credibly say they aren’t keeping competitors out and that the poor quality of Adobe Flash really is the issue

2.  It would allow programs to be developed with a common code base for Windows Phone Series 7 and the iPhone.  This is great for Apple because the new Windows Phone doesn’t look promising.  So this allows Apple to look like it’s supporting cross platform development while they’re really just propping a weak competitor up.

3.  It opens the door to a lot of new developers.  Yes, it’s true Microsoft’s developer ranks have diminished but there are still a lot of MS developers out there and they’re exactly the type of people who wouldn’t be developing for Apple products right now.  Microsoft’s unique web technology (ASP.NET) has created a group of developers who build web solutions but who have very little experience in HTML, Javascript and CSS which makes it hard for them to develop even web apps for the iPhone or iPad.  Porting Silverlight would fix that.

(Of course not all ASP.NET developers are like that but there’s a significant number who are)

4.  It starts Apple down the road to building an anti-Google coalition.  Apple’s best move right now is to find ways to paint Google as the bad guy.  The easiest way for them to do that is to start working with other companies (who are also afraid of Google’s growing power and who will also paint Google as the bad guy).  

In the end Apple has very little to lose by supporting Silverlight and a lot to gain. 

(For the record I don’t think any of this is true.  I think Microsoft is being given time because the next iPhone will use Bing as it’s default search engine.  But it never hurts to hypothesize)