<![CDATA[Microsoft smacks down new Media Player too…]]>Oh, Microsoft didn’t let Adobe have all the NAB fun. Here’s Beet.TV with Microsoft’s Forest Key who announces a new media player strategy for Microsoft too (based around its WPF/E technology). Here’s Adobe’s announcements on Google News and here’s Microsoft’s news, also on Google News.

So, here’s why this is important:

1) Microsoft doesn’t want to lose more market share to the future YouTube’s.
2) Adobe has more distribution than WPF/E has so far (Flash is on nearly everything and is the technology behind most of today’s popular video sites). It’s hoping to use that distribution to sell a series of servers.
3) Adobe’s development tools are more cross-platform than Microsoft’s are and are hoping its new media player keeps the Microsoft side of the fence from looking very attractive (Apple today announced that it has sold 800,000 copies of Final Cut Pro — those media developers aren’t very likely to jump on Microsoft’s bandwagon).
4) Microsoft’s technology is flashier (no pun intended) but isn’t proven in the marketplace yet. Yeah, Microsoft has pulled out some big guns that are saying they are supporting its new technology.
5) Microsoft has a HUGE lead over Adobe in HDTV. That’s going to be where Microsoft will get a lot of traction and where Adobe is still chasing Microsoft’s tail. Will that lead matter, though? Not to ABC.com. It already has all of ABC’s TV shows online in a near-HDTV format and player (based on Move Networks) and doesn’t need either Adobe or Microsoft’s stuff. Same with Joost, which is getting to be very popular if my Twitter friends are a good judge of things. Same with Stage6.divx.com. No Adobe or Microsoft stuff in either of those. So, really both Microsoft and Adobe are losing marketshare to other HDTV distribution and display technologies.

What do you think? How does Adobe’s and Microsoft’s announcements change the marketplace?

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