It’s the season to rumble! Microsoft has just launched beta of a new media technology called Silverlight that essentially is going to compete with Adobe’s Flash technology. Adobe, meanwhile has introduced Adobe Media Player, a standalone media player that can be perceived as a competitor to Windows Media Player. Microsoft has signed up MLB as a partner for Silverlight. Adobe is working with eBay, the Wall Street Journal says.
The new media player is an effort by Adobe to capture some of the upside of the online video boom. It must “tweak their melons” that a company that used their Flash technology, aka YouTube got sold for $1.65 billion, and all they got was a proverbial T-Shirt!
“The media companies have a lot of questions about the other technology providers – are they becoming media companies or becoming providers… We are not a media company,” Craig Barberich, group product manager for Adobe Dynamic Media Organization tells NewTeeVee. That’s a dig at iTunes as well, because AMP does mimic many of the video features of Apple’s digital media platform. Nevertheless, this promises to be a long bloody fight, though Adobe has an advantage, thanks to near omnipresence of Flash on all platforms.
As an aside, this is a flashback moment from the ’90s, when competing technologies vied for consumer affection but ending up causing more confusion.
13 comments so far
2:17 AM PT
[...] Vía: GigaOm [...]
2:23 AM PT
[...] Vía: GigaOm [...]
6:02 AM PT
If the Adobe player is a new insall, do they really have an advantage?
6:20 AM PT
Microsoft makes its own proprietary version of the Flash player? Isn’t the Flash player installed on like 99% of all the computers in the world?
Smooth move Redmond, smooth. Can I expect to be force feed this new player with the next Service pack for Vista…
[Vista user prompt]“Silverlight is not your default media player. Would you like to completely uninstall Adobe Flash and replace it with Silverlight? Clicking now will cause this prompt to appear everytime the Adobe Flash player executes….”
7:26 AM PT
Microsoft are a bunch of control freaks. As if Flash is not meeting the needs of everyone.
Google, please get rid of these guys!
8:55 AM PT
[...] Source: GigaOm [...]
12:21 PM PT
I urge anyone who wants a good laugh to check out the sample Silverlight content here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=515684FD-C8A0-4588-88C5-54CE224925E7&displaylang=en
Some of the nastiest rich media content I’ve ever seen. Not really a reflection on the quality of the silverlight technology, but you would think they could have done better than this.
9:03 PM PT
“this is a flashback…from the ’90s,…ending up causing more confusion.”
Actually different market segments seem to identify what format they wants for what application. By just creating a few value add ons, Microsoft and Adobe can’t create a huge dent in each other’s territory. In this case, definitely not Microsoft…it just seems to have a complicated offering. Adobe, well yes…Adobe needed to iron out a few creases of security, quality and real time streaming to become the darling of the emerging online media industry…but it still has some way to go before it can be mounted on the pedestal as the ultimate video solution.
11:31 PM PT
[...] Written by Om Malik Sunday, September 30, 2007 at 11:31 PM PT | No comments Everyone wants a piece of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Office suite. Google (GOOG), Sun Microsystems (JAVA), IBM, dozens of start-ups and now, Adobe Systems (ADBE). The company today bought Virtual Ubiquity, a Waltham, Mass.-based start-up behind Buzzword, an online word processing software offering. I guess this is one way to respond to Microsoft Silverlight that takes aim right at the heart of Adobe. [...]
11:00 PM PT
[...] Stacey Higginbotham, Monday, March 3, 2008 at 11:00 PM PT Comments (0) Nokia has signed up to use Microsoft’s Silverlight platform for its S60 and S40 mobile devices as well as its Nokia Internet tablets, marking the first mobile win for the Redmond giant’s rich media development framework. This follows announcements last year of Silverlight support for Linux and Macs. With the mobile push, Microsoft is moving toward making Silverlight a truly cross-platform tool, able to compete with Adobe Flash. [...]
11:01 PM PT
[...] the mobile push, Microsoft is moving toward making Silverlight a truly cross-platform tool, able to compete with Adobe Flash. Continue reading at [...]
12:20 AM PT
[...] Nokia has signed up to use Microsoft’s Silverlight platform for its S60 and S40 mobile devices as well as its Nokia Internet tablets, marking the first mobile win for the Redmond giant’s rich media development framework. This follows announcements last year of Silverlight support for Linux and Macs. With the mobile push, Microsoft is moving toward making Silverlight a truly cross-platform tool, able to compete with Adobe Flash. [...]
7:39 PM PT
There is no doubt that Silverlight is gaining momentum. Of course Flash has many hearts and minds in its camp and it is very easy to bash Microsoft for trying anything new, but this is a worthy release.
To showcase Silverlight, Microsoft Australia are running an interesting campaign to demo MS Office 2007 and raise money for charity at the same time. Users watch a 30-second clip of Aussie kids explaining Office 2007, and Microsoft donates one Aussie dollar to a local charity, The Smith Family.
It’s a well-polished Silverlight site for a good cause.
http://www.microsoft.com.au/donatenow is the link
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