Microsoft Plans Aggressive Push in Streaming Media
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates unveiled an aggressive plan Tuesday to make its Windows Media software the technology backbone for the surging market of delivering digital audio and video over the Internet.
Gates delivered the keynote speech at the Streaming Media ’99 conference here and described this convergence of improved software, more powerful personal computers, high-speed connections and the Internet’s growth as an “explosive set of circumstances” ripe for “the digital media revolution.”
He said 91% of Windows 98 users are online, spending about 40 hours a month surfing the Web, and that “digital media is defining a new generation.”
Microsoft also unveiled various new technologies, partnerships and initiatives to promote its vision.
But while Microsoft’s Media software program is gaining in popularity, it still lags far behind the industry leader, the RealPlayer from Seattle-based RealNetworks Inc., according to researcher Nielsen/NetRatings.
In October, Nielsen/NetRatings said RealPlayer outpaced Microsoft’s Media Player by 10 to 1 and bested Apple Computer Inc.’s digital media player Quicktime by about 4 to 1.
RealNetworks, which was founded by former Microsoft executive Rob Glaser and pioneered Internet audio and video, said on Tuesday that it has topped 7 million downloads of the latest test version of RealPlayer.
Still, Microsoft believes that with various partnerships and the pending release of Windows 2000 server and desktop operating systems, this provides an opportunity to take on RealNetworks.
“I think that it is a market for Real to lose,” said Stacey Quandt, analyst for Giga Information Group in Santa Clara. “It will be difficult for Real to withstand Microsoft’s full-scale offering.”
During his speech, Gates demonstrated several new devices that use Microsoft technologies, including its stripped-down Windows CE operating system used in digital set-top boxes, and other smaller, non-PC devices. He showed off a radio player from Sonicbox Inc., which lets a user listen to music stored on a PC from any standard radio in the home.
Gates also unveiled a broadband section of its Windows Media Web site, where it offers video and other digital media to users with high-speed Internet access, such as a cable modem or DSL service.
He also showed off Microsoft’s “Windows Movie Maker,” which will come with the next version of Windows. The program lets users create and edit their own home movies recorded with digital cameras.
The industry goal is to provide audio or video on demand, from music to TV news to a movie. Gates demonstrated that the technology is available now to make the interactive experience a reality.
For broadcasters and Hollywood, this streaming media could redefine how they distribute content, saving them tens of millions of dollars by distributing content over the Internet directly to customers and bypassing the media distributors.
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Reuters was used in compiling this report.
