Flash vs. Windows Media: Choosing the Right Format
For some content creators, the extra cost involved in delivering Flash is worth it if they can provide a better end-user experience, while for others, Windows Media suits their goals just fine. The whole point is that this is not about one platform being better than another. It's about using the best platform or combination of platforms based on your type of content, the device(s) you are delivering it to, and the end users you want to reach. Only you can decide which platform(s) to use based on the answers to those questions, and many times, content creators use multiple platforms to reach the widest numbers of users.
As the debate over the Flash and Windows Media formats continues to rage on in the industry, so does the battle between Adobe and Microsoft over which platform will reign supreme. Adobe is hard at work on Flash 9 (it shipped the player in late June) while Microsoft, not to be outdone, has announced it is working on a competing product, now called Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer, the release of which would coincide with that of their next-generation Windows operating system, Windows Vista. Although the target audiences of Expression Interactive Designer and Flash overlap somewhat, Microsoft is targeting its product towards creating user interfaces for Windows Presentation Foundation programs, while Flash focuses on user interfaces that run on many platforms, primarily over the web. And you know Microsoft—when they want to win something, you can never count them out.
It’s been a long time since the early days (circa 1999) when we saw the last good format battle in the industry. Some may disagree, but Adobe and Microsoft aggressively competing with one another is great for everyone. As we have seen in the past, competition between the platforms helps drive new and improved video quality, scalability, and functionality to the market a lot sooner. Good technology is not the savior of any industry--adoption is the key—but any platform that is going to make video consumption over any device smoother and easier will be adopted over time.
Come Q4 of this year and the beginning of next, we’ll see both companies really stepping up to the plate with new announcements and product offerings. And with Microsoft and Adobe both possessing plenty of resources for both product development and marketing, it’s going to shape up to be a real platform battle. Round two is just getting underway.
Still have questions about formats? Contact me at mail@danrayburn.com
Looking for details on which Flash codec is best? See our latest research report Flash Codecs, 2006: Choosing and Using the Optimal Flash Codec