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Firstly I'd recommend reading up on DI and how it relates to Inversion of Control (IoC) over here. Basically you've most probably been using it for years and never knew the terminology. Its when some module or component of code doesn't take a reference to a resource but the resource is provided to it at runtime.

Other than the obvious design decoupling advantages, one of the most popular uses of it are in mocking - that is faking a resource - and its generally used in testing code.

So I reckon the potential for use in Silverlight is great as it allows for decoupled design.

 They are pretty much the same benefits of implementing DI in any environment. 

For the benefits of DI to really sink in I suggesting reading up on DI in general (the Wikipedia link is pretty good for that) and then head over to Jonas' blog where he does a great write up on Dependency Injection in Silverlight with Ninject (http://jonas.follesoe.no/YouCardRevisitedImplementingDependencyInjectionInSilverlight.aspx, I blogged about his article here: http://developingux.com/2008/10/07/dependency-injection-for-silverlight-with-ninject/)

1. Testability - by having your dependencies automatically injected in to your objects it's much easier to create and load up mock objects to "shim" your services layer for example.

• ShippingMock : IShippingService - for testing in isolation
• FedExService : IShippingService - for actually sending your items
• UPSService : IShippingService - in case you're wondering what Brown can actually do for you.