Streaming Media - June/July 2008 - (Page 38) it’s all in the delivery 2.5 as much as it did in Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Having a strong ecosystem will help you grow faster and reach a larger base of customers. Insular companies may see initial short-term growth but will experience only limited long-term growth because of an inability to scale. The big players in this space are the usual suspects: Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, RealNetworks, DivX, and a few relative newcomers, such as Move Networks, MobiTV, and Digital Fountain. Not all of these technologies make the grade. But they do represent the technologies that are driving the streaming video industry today, and they are likely the technologies you are using to watch video on your PC, mobile phone, and even your TV. Of this list, Adobe and Microsoft seem to be squaring off in a technology battle similar to many Microsoft has taken part in over the years. I’m probably older than many of my readers, so I remember some of Microsoft’s epic industry battles that many may not recall: • Microsoft DOS versus DRDOS—winner: Microsoft • Microsoft Windows versus IBM OS2—winner: Microsoft • Microsoft Excel versus Lotus 1-2-3—winner: Microsoft against a deluge of industry complaints. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) ultimately fined Microsoft for monopolistic practices and imposed restrictions that limited how Microsoft could promote its other Windows-based applications and technologies. In its post-DOJ era, Microsoft isn’t the juggernaut it once was, some might say. Here are a few notable Microsoft failures: • • • • Microsoft PressPlay (et al.) versus Apple’s iTunes—winner: Apple Microsoft Search versus Google—winner: Google Microsoft XPS versus Adobe PDF—winner: Adobe Microsoft Windows Media versus Macromedia Flash (now owned by Adobe)—winner: Macromedia Microsoft appears to be struggling on other fronts as well. Its Vista operating system had difficulty getting out the door and is struggling to measure up to analysts’ expectations. The company is also getting serious competition on the server front from Linux and renewed competition on the browser front from Firefox and others. Flash developer Peter Elst praises Adobe AIR for its ease of use for HTML, AJAX, Flash, and Flex developers. MobiTV has long been a leader in the mobil video player space, but it has recently entered the content delivery server space as well because the features they wanted weren’t available in other available servers, says company president and co-founder Peter Scanlan. • • • • • Microsoft Internet Explorer versus Netscape—winner: Microsoft Microsoft Word versus Word Perfect—winner: Microsoft Microsoft Windows NT versus Novell—winner: Microsoft Microsoft Windows Media versus RealNetworks—winner: Microsoft Microsoft SharePoint versus Lotus Notes—winner: Microsoft I used to be an old Borland supporter and one of the first certified NetWare Engineers. In fact, I still think Quattro Pro is a better spreadsheet than Excel. But after seeing Microsoft decimate its competitors, I crossed over and became an avid supporter and evangelist. In fact, when I started my company, I made a conscious decision to exclusively support Microsoft’s Windows Media technology. But many of these wins came before Microsoft had to defend its competitive practices 38 STREAMING MEDIA June/July 2008 Google appears to be Microsoft’s biggest threat in the world of internet “widgets,” as Richard Titus—who helped start Razorfish and another digital media company called Schematics—likes to refer to these small applications that will soon drive everything from word processing and spreadsheets to media applications. Google owns the largest streaming site on the internet, YouTube, which uses Adobe’s Flash technology to power its videos. Unless you’ve been asleep in a cave, you have probably used it many times during this presidential election season to view Saturday Night Live skits or other memorable pop culture content. Both Adobe and Google have beaten Microsoft in the past, as previously noted, and they are not intimidated by the Redmond behemoth.
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