Microsoft Silverlight takes on Adobe Flash

April 16, 2007
Scobleizer talks about Microsoft throwing down the multi-media gauntlet with a new software called Silverlight that aims to take on Adobe Flash, the predominant video media format on YouTube and other websites due to its better cross-platform support. Microsoft's Silverlight faces an uphill battle against Adobe Flash since the Adobe Flash Player is installed on more than 700 million computers and content developers are used to Adobe's media creation tools. Not to be outdone, Adobe introduced Adobe Media Player, a standalone media player that can play content "offline", as opposed to streamed "online" like the current Adobe Flash player does. This is in direct competition to the popular Windows Media Player bundled with most Windows PCs. This brings back the glory days of the Microsoft vs. Real media player battles.

Scobleizer discusses 5 interesting reasons why Microsoft's foray into this space is important. He mentions Microsoft's huge lead over Adobe in HDTV. This is a valid point and considering Microsoft's strong relationship with cable companies and some carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile) with their set top boxes and IPTV platform called Microsoft IPTV Edition, Microsoft is positioned to offer a "converged" solution that has some interesting possibilities. For instance, you could download a movie to your PC, your cellphone, or your set-top box. In any scenario, Microsoft could allow you to play this downloaded content anywhere on any device. The media player wars just got interesting... Microsoft defeated Real quite handily (in my opinion), but Adobe has legions of fans that will make it a much tougher battle.

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