While Adobe has made great strides with Flash video, Microsoft is responding with an announcement here at NAB that it’s unveiling Silverlight, a new cross-platform video solution that’s very similar to Flash. Meanwhile, Adobe is announcing that it will offer the Adobe Media Player, a free video player, as well as a technology called “Apollo” that allows more real-time web integration and customization with Flash video. MLB will use Silverlight to add real-time scoring and statistics to live streams, and eBay is using Apollo to integrate video functionality. “The future battle lines are going to be drawn between Microsoft and Adobe in this space,” says Chris Swenson, an analyst at NPD Group, a research firm. I’d remove the word “future” from that quote, and I’ll venture to say Microsoft has a ways to go to catch up. But that hasn’t stopped them before.
On a separate note, I’m going to bash Windows XP for a moment. While my video camera works splendidly on my Mac at home (plug and play), my Windows PC refuses to recognize it here in Vegas. Look, it’s like the Mac ad.
