Streaming Media - June/July 2008 - (Page 40) creation of rich interactive user Table 1 – Top Ten Online Video Brands experiences. Microsoft has a disjointed media strategy that seems Brand Total Streams (000) Unique Viewers (000) to be coming together under the YouTube 2,570,182 66,167 Silverlight brand. Fox Interactive Media 376,859 18,955 Yahoo! 299,044 22,119 Another key piece of technology in Nickelodeon Kids/Family Network 172,567 7,014 Microsoft’s media toolkit is its XAML MSN/Windows Live 132,769 7,659 (pronounced “zamell”) language. Disney Online 102,914 8,977 “Think of XAML as a declarative Turner Entertainment New Media Network 98,162 5,056 language that lets you go seamESPN 90,212 4,709 lessly between the design world and Google 79,395 12,949 the programming world,” says Veoh 72,832 2,385 Sklepowich. You take the strength of (Source: Nielsen Online, Video Census U.S., Home & Work, January 2008) the developer and you now say to the designer, ‘Go learn these interactive tools, and what you do is going to be 100% maintained as you two sites represent more than 54% of streams from the hand it over to the developer.’” top 10 video brands online, according to Nielsen Online. Still Sklepowich admits Microsoft has challenges As a result, Adobe is the current leader in online video ahead. Adobe has long been the leader among creative playback technologies. The company attained this post professionals, and Sklepowich says that Microsoft has to by taking advantage of Microsoft’s lack of focus in the build relationships with that community. “Adobe also internet streaming space. It is now leveraging its leadership has the deployment, just the reach of the Flash player. to advance its technology so that it plays a bigger role in We have to get there, and we will do that through how video reaches consumers: via the internet, portable great content. We are tracking at a million-and-a-half devices, and connected TV sets in their homes. downloads a day and we will get the deployment problem Like Microsoft, Adobe has lacked the robust developer solved in the next few months,” Sklepowich says, tools needed to create desktop applications, but the adding that Microsoft recently signed deals with AOL company addressed this recently by launching Adobe and Nokia that should extend Silverlight’s reach. “The AIR, a cross-platform runtime environment for building design community, I think, is a long-term problem. I think rich media applications that run on the internet and/or on the runtime acceptability and the reach is a short-term desktops. “The benefits seem to be that if you are used to problem. We will be there. We will be on hundreds of creating Flash applications, you can now more easily millions of desktops shortly.” create them with AIR [and its libraries]. And if you are a A big weakness for Microsoft is its decision not to Flash designer, you can use your current design tool [such support H.264, instead choosing to support only VC-1 as Dreamweaver] to now create desktop applications. … for high-definition content. If Microsoft continues to rely Whether you’re an HTML/AJAX or Flash/Flex developer, on VC-1 while the rest of the world moves to support you can now seamlessly bring your web applications to H.264, then it will become vulnerable to losing additional the desktop on PC, Mac, and Linux using your existing market share to Adobe and others, which it can’t afford skills and whatever development environment you are to do at this junction. most comfortable with,” says Peter Elst, a freelance Flash What makes technology work is the ecosystem that platform consultant, Adobe community expert, and author adopts and supports it. Microsoft has benefited when it of Object-Oriented ActionScript 3.0. could control the ecosystem, but in a post-DOJ era in Adobe has also lacked a robust DRM and offline which it can’t do that, Microsoft may have to learn to media player, a problem it corrected recently with its adopt and promote common technology that the digital announcement of the Adobe Media Player, which was media ecosystem standardizes around. created with AIR, and the Adobe Flash Media Rights If you are a Microsoft developer/enterprise or content Management Server. Adobe is also aggressively supporting owner who has invested in Windows Media technologies, open platforms and standards to improve its leadership stay put and enjoy the ride. Things are only going to get in the space. It recently announced support for H.264 and better. But move on if you are looking to support H.264, has an alpha version of Adobe AIR for Linux. need Linux support, or want to build solutions based on Adobe states that, unlike other companies in the space, it these open and robust technologies because Microsoft sees support for both of these open technologies as crucial. currently doesn’t support Linux. There is an open source “We take a passionate approach to reliability across project underway being led by Novell, but it supports operating systems,” says Phil Costa, director of product only VC-1 for now. management for the platform business unit at Adobe. “Microsoft has yet to prove that cross-platform is important to [its business], and [it’s] not really motivated to do that Adobe AIR and Adobe Media Player because Windows is a big part of [its] business currently.” Adobe’s technology is powering Google’s YouTube and Adobe is being very innovative in enhancing its techmany of FOX Interactive’s websites, including the site for nology, and if consumers welcome the company’s the popular TV show American Idol (see Table 1). These 40 STREAMING MEDIA June/July 2008 it’s all in the delivery
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