Phoenix
Member
CaptainABAB said:Since when did they ever compete against Flash and Photoshop? I would say that Microsoft never had a product that was in direct competition with those two.
Sadly you are either 'new' to Microsoft's product lines and developer products or just not informed.
On Microsoft strategies to compete with Photoshop:
We have learned, historically, if we stay close to what we really do well, we win. Microsoft has tried [to enter Adobe's markets]. It tried in the early days coming up with a PostScript clone -- and it actually shipped one printer with an OEM. It was a total failure. It tried with Microsoft Draw and Microsoft PhotoDraw, and gave away the product free with Microsoft Office to kind of "nitch up" Illustrator and Photoshop. Again, it was total failure -- these products no longer exist. For eBook publishing, it tried Microsoft Reader, as a end run around PDF. You never hear about Microsoft Reader anymore. Microsoft tried, once again, to go at Photoshop with Microsoft Picture It. The company has never been able to move Picture It above the consumer level. So, I am confident that, as long as we do what we do well, as long as we continue to execute, we'll be very successful, despite Microsoft's monopoly.
When I get home I'll grab the CDs with Microsoft ActiveX based competitor to Flash. They pushed that one hard and no one was interested in adopting it because it only worked on Windows.