Written By Kate Zimmermann | April 16, 2007 | Share This |

Over the weekend, both Microsoft and Adobe came out with competing media player products - Microsoft launched Silverlight, a direct competitor to Adobe’s Flash, while Adobe released Adobe Media Player, an alternative to Microsoft’s Windows Media Player.

Microsoft calls Silverlight, “a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.” It’ll run on both Mac and Windows, within Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. Silverlight will scale media from mobile-quality to full-screen high-definition, and is fully integrated with Windows Media technologies.

The Adobe Media Player, meanwhile, “will let users subscribe to and play video podcasts published with RSS (Really Simple Syndication). The application also allows users to comment on and share videos.” The Media Player will support multiple types of advertising, offer RSS encryption, be fully customizable, and can report on user interaction with downloaded media. It’s the offline accompaniment to Adoble’s online Flash player.

The new products together reveal a growing demand for fully-integrated cross-functional media. Both, however, face stiff competition - Adobe Flash has nearly 85% market penetration, while Windows Media Player is the default for every PC & Microsoft user. As Pete Cashmore at Mashable points out, the older media players maintain significant advantage in their respective markets - but the overall winner will be the player that drives the most users between their on and offline platforms.

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