Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
One must assume that Microsoft and Adobe have been watching each other very closely in recent months because the timing of their mirror image announcements at the NAB 2007 electronics media show in Las Vegas is in no way coincidental. In a nutshell, Adobe wants to put a media player on the desktop where Microsoft dominates with WMP and Microsoft intends to put a rich media technology on the web where Adobe dominates with Flash.
Even the names used by the two companies for
their respective products evoke similar imagery and is indicative of
the coming head-to-head battle across two arenas which has been
steadily building. On the desktop, it's Adobe Media Player challenging
the dominance of Windows Media Player. On the web, it's Microsoft's new
Silverlight technology challenging the almost ubiquitous Adobe Flash.
Described by Adobe as a lightweight download, Adobe Media Player
promises to deliver higher quality Flash format playback, the ability
to download and view videos offline, ways to discover interesting new
shows, full screen playback, one-click viewer ratings, and a powerful
Favorites feature that automatically downloads new episodes of favorite
TV shows or video podcasts. The player is also cross-platform and based
on open standards – including RSS and SMIL.
While the new Adobe Media Player will be free for users, publishers
will be able to monetize content through integrated dynamic
advertising. Features will include on-demand streaming, live streaming,
progressive download, and protected download-and-play.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's new Silverlight video player for browsers, still
in beta, will be available as a compatible plug-in for Internet
Explorer, Firefox and Apple Safari (sorry Opera fans) and offers full
screen video and MP3 audio. Much like the way users are prompted to
download Flash in order to fully view sites that contain Flash content,
Microsoft will distribute its new rich media technology to users via
sites with Silverlight content.
The coming year promises an interesting clash between two dominant
players each trying to pry their way into each other's respective
territory.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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