Monday, December 10, 2007

Bill Gates on Flash and Silverlight (Conversation Part IV) » BIT-101 Blog

Bill talks about about where Silverlight is headed (cash investment in cool technology = results?) and what the model is (designers + results = cash influx?)

So, the choice is much more at the designer level, and I don’t know whether we’ll — we’re just investing in it, we think it’s a really great thing. Scott knows a hundred times more about it than I do.

But what is the model? Is it just going to be better than Flash, and take share away at the designer level? Is it going to be better at certain things like when you want programming logic related to it because we’re very good at that? Will it be better just in the Windows environment and about the same everywhere else, because we’re good at doing that integration? It’s hard to say.

Bill Gates on Flash and Silverlight (Conversation Part IV) » BIT-101 Blog

Just replace "It's hard to say" with "yes" and "we're just investing in it" with "we're planning on taking market share from Adobe, or at least giving them a headache."

All of a sudden Adobe needs to start focusing less on core features and more on a defensive or offensive strategy against an incumbent technology. 

One way Adobe is investing to fight back?  People capital.  People who are working on cutting edge technology like Bilateral Filtering and 3D TV.

People capital is something Microsoft has plenty of too, and with Scott knowing a hundred times more than Bill Gates they could be a force to be reckoned with... or maybe just a thorn in Adobe's side.

Anyway, Silverlight has Ice Cube's attention. NWA, MLB and now the NBA too.  So it's not just People Capital that's important, it's Market Share, and Adobe seems to be sharing more of that market with Microsoft lately. 

No comments: