8.25.08: Microsoft Expression vs. Adobe Creative Suite and the 2008 Olympic Games
Who could possibly take on Adobe's virtual monopoly in the creative sphere of software applications? Only 3 companies come to mind, Apple, Google, and of course, Microsoft. What company could actually take a large chunk of market share, and someday dominate Adobe? Only one company comes to mind, and they are working on it right now. Microsoft's Expression Studio 2 seems like a direct competitor to Adobe's Creative Suite. Sure, Expression is no where near as complete and refined as Adobe's CS, but give it some time. Also, if one company is able to gain market penetration and user acceptance in the absence of well-written applications, it is Microsoft. I am glad that Adobe is going to have some competition. Microsoft's actual art-creation program is the weak-link in the group (imagine that!). Expression Design tries to emulate Adobe's Illustrator, but falls far short. Also, where is the Photoshop-type-application? Where is the Mac version of this software suite? I only hope that design itself does not begin to suffer even more from the potential artistic dumbing-down to the lowest-common-denominator characteristic that is prevalent in many of Microsoft's applications.
One aspect of the acceptance of Microsoft's Expression Studio will have to do with how fast the market accepts penetration of yet another media player–Silverlight. How long will it take for Microsoft's Silverlight to reach near the levels of Adobe's Flash? I tend to think not very long at all. Here is one personal example of how Microsoft is quickly penetrating the market with their new media player.
Finally, the Olympic games were readily available on the internet this time around. For the first time ever, for us lovers of the obscure olympic event, or an event where the USA does not dominate, the Olympics were available to watch as a streaming movie/video. For me, a big fan of international freestyle wrestling, this was great. I did not have to watch 2 weeks of events on TV, and take in 57 hours of US domination in the pool or on the track, only to capture, if I am lucky, 8 minutes of Americans getting their rear-ends handed to them on the wrestling mat. This year I was able to watch hours of freestyle wrestling. The entire event, from the opening rounds to the gold-medal matches, were all there for the download, and Mountain biking also, thank you NBC! But of course there was one big catch, if you wanted to watch ANY of the Olympic coverage via NBC's website–you needed to install Microsoft's Silverlight media player! The content would not work with Adobe's Flash player, or any other media player. Also, if you are one of the few still running a pre-Intel Mac there is no Silverlight for you. I already had Silverlight installed on my Intel Mac, but this was the first time I HAD to use the player. The player itself works OK if you have a powerful computer system. My 2.0Ghz core2duo with 2 gigs of ram was still working hard to run the Silverlight media player. I think the efficiency of the rendering has much improvement to make if it is going to match Adobe's Flash. However, the main point I am trying to make is that with Microsoft's corporate power, and the relationships that come with it, penetration of Silverlight media player will happen very quickly. Did you watch any of the Olympics on-line? Not if you did not have Sliverlight! I also just noticed that if you plan on viewing any of the Democratic National Convention on-line, one will need Microsoft's Silverlight. It is realtionships like the two examples above that show how quickly Silverlight will be adopted by the market.
I expect Microsoft's Expression will catch up to Adobe in market share quickly. What will Adobe's response be? Will they lower the price of their Creative Suite or will they invent a new set of features that makes their suite irresistible. I hope for the latter. Expression is touting itself as the creative/design package for web developers. Well, Adobe how about a true web development app. for designers? Adobe, you should make Dreamweaver the total web design/development application it was ment to be! Web browser standards are actually becoming a reality, and with this should come a true, tight WYSIWYG web design/development app. Dreamweaver should be as user friendly for a graphic/visual designer as using Adobe's print-based layout program, InDesign. Yes, that is what I said. Dreamweaver should be as user friendly for a graphic/visual designer as using InDesign. That is not a statement coming from ignorance, like many coders might tend to think, that should be a new mission-statement for Adobe.
I believe in equal-opportunity dissing, and there is more than enough trash-talking about the big-boys of Microsoft and Adobe. In fact, I am not sure who is hated more these days. That hatred is a sign of the power of these two technological heavy-weights. I personally cannot wait until they start swinging at each other. All of us watching the battle stand to benefit. Adobe needs to be knocked of their high-horse a bit, and in the process Microsoft might make some "cool" software.
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