The 'Microsoft alliance' probably just refers to MACR's recent announcement about publishing the file format for Flash and trying to make it a standard. This is a positive thing, but not major financial news.
<<I really see a future here once bandwidth becomes readily available>> Actually, Flash solves bandwidth problems right now. But the problem that Flash has is that graphics and animations created with the Flash editor require a plug-in to be viewed on web pages. There is resistance to plug-ins on the web, and content creators cannot assume that everyone will have a specific plug-in. They have to create to the lowest denominator, which does not include plug-ins, generally.
That's what this announcement is about. Microsoft seems to be indicating, if I understand this correctly, that they will build into Explorer the capability to view graphics in this new file format which Flash generates. Thus, anyone with such a version of Explorer will be able to automatically see Flash-created graphics without needing to have downloaded and installed a plug-in. And then, everyone creating web sites can freely use Flash, and MACR sells more Flash. The only thing missing is, what about Netscape and its browser? Netscape is such a screwed up company that it will probably completely miss this, and it will just be one more nail in its coffin, at least in the browser market. |
