When HTML 5's basic functions became widely known and started to be seriously developed to be the successor to HTML 4, Silverlight and Flash have become less and less relevant.
Or so many commentators on the blogosphere would have you believe.
This is simply untrue. When we get to the heart of the issue, we can see that the main arguments for the decreasing relevance of Flash/Silverlight err on the side of irrelevancy themselves.
The misunderstanding stems from a basic lack of knowledge in the industry. I've heard statements that go like this:
"HTML 5 will support video and various other media, so there will no longer be a need for extra plug-ins like Flash or Silverlight."
So let me ask you then, what kind of things have you seen Flash or Silverlight be used for on the web? Is it just for showing video? Of course not. Yes HTML 5 does support video, but Flash and Silverlight both offer so much more than that.
For the people that have believed in the FUD, I really don't think I need to get into the specifics of just how much more advanced Silverlight and Flash (more specifically, Flex) is. Do you seriously believe that 2 simple tags can negate all the uses for advanced coding on RIA platforms? That's completely ridiculous.
Even today, even if we're just talking about simple video streaming, HTML 5 is still not the best option. You hear it from the YouTube team, that it's simpler to do their stuff with Flash. You can think of the quality of streaming and the advanced streaming functionality that comes with Silverlight.
HTML 5 and Silverlight/Flash are not comparable. And don't even get me started on the business applications that cannot be created by HTML 5. That's a whole other playing field that HTML 5 can't even being to touch, and is always ignored by the FUD anyways.
Friday, September 24, 2010
The great HTML5 and Flash/Silverlight Misunderstanding
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Google vs Microsoft Part 2: The Business Model Flaw
In part 1, we discussed why Google stock was not a good bet in terms of only some basic financial calculations and ratios. Today, we will discuss a fundamental business model flaw in Google.
The only reason one might consider investing in Google at this point is if it can somehow offer incredible growth and earnings, but this is unlikely. Considering that their executives are not confident, that should be reason enough to believe that Google will not grow much more. However, there is also a flaw in their business model, which will lead to their eventual downfall.
The raging war between Google and Microsoft for domination of the world is hot as ever, but though for a while Microsoft appeared to be down, Google cannot win this war. Both companies boast an enormous product array, investing in many different areas in technology on both the consumer and enterprise end. Most of Google’s offerings are touted to the consumer, but Microsoft is generally more profitable on the enterprise end. However, that does not mean either of them want to lose any potential profits, and so they compete heavily on both sides. Then let us take a look at some of their core products and why Microsoft will ultimately be the victor.
Google predominantly is a search engine. They may have a lot of different products, but their revenue comes almost exclusively from the search ad business and Google Adsense/Adwords. In fact, most of their other products either make negligible amounts or plainly lose money: YouTube, Blogger, Gmail, Google Apps, and Google Earth, to list some of the widely known (they have many more unprofitable products). Google Apps is the only one that may have some potential for future earnings, but faces the formidable Microsoft Office monopoly. The only part of it that is appealing is the low-cost and some of the cloud features offered. Unfortunately for Google, Microsoft is soon to host Web versions of Office, and will soon offer cloud counterparts for Office as well. All of these products that Google has can only be sustained simply because the search engine ad business makes so much money; compared with Microsoft which makes money through a variety of products: Windows, Office, Server, and Xbox. There is also another crucial difference: Google makes money only from ads, while Microsoft makes money by selling products and services.
Such is the flaw in the business model of Google, and ultimately, it is not good if Microsoft begins to take ANY of Google's search engine share.
If you'd like to see the earlier post on the Google the tech company stock vs Microsoft in part 1, then just click the link.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Google vs Microsoft Part 1: Stocks
One of the hottest names in the tech industry, Google (GOOG) seems to be taking the world by storm, bringing all sorts of new products such as Google Wave, Chrome OS, and even their own phone. But is it really what it seems to be? Google’s strongest competitor is none other than the world’s 7th most profitable company: Microsoft (MSFT). 7th? That doesn’t seem TOO high does it? Well actually, it is, because the top 6 are all oil and gas companies and we all know how much of an energy demand we have right now. Microsoft is clearly a potent competitor to Google, and the reality is Microsoft is the future of the technology world.
Before we discuss the merits of Microsoft, let us simply tackle the fundamental problems with Google stock and their business.
Valued at $590 currently, this is far beyond their pre-recession values. That’s astounding, and the only reason it is like this is because of the perceived potential for growth. However, their percentage return on equity is only at 16%. Return on equity is simply the amount of earnings they have expressed as a percentage of total shareholder value in the company (which is assets minus liability). Compare that with Microsoft: an incredible 36%. In fact, Warren Buffet, the world’s most famous investor by far is known to only invest in companies with ROEs at least above 20%. That makes Google seem like a weak candidate. In addition, their operating and profit margins and return on assets are all lower than Microsoft’s. What’s more, it is clear that even insiders at Google have no confidence in their company. The amount of Google stock owned by insiders is less than 0.5%. The amount of MSFT stock owned by insiders is over 10%. Plus, Google Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin who sit on the company’s board of directors do not hold any Google stock. That’s right, they hold 0 Google stock. They have no faith in their own company. Neither does the Google CEO Eric Schmidt. There is no real reason to invest in a stock that does not have the confidence of its executives. Google stock is simply not compelling.
Friday, January 16, 2009
EU Wants to Cut IE from Windows
The European Union is now complaining about Microsoft's bundling of IE with Windows, stemming from a complaint by Opera in 2007. They claim that Microsoft is unfairly using its market dominance to distribute Internet Explorer. This is the statement they issued:
It seems similar to anti-trust lawsuits from long ago, that completely failed against Microsoft. Microsoft has yet to issue a public statement on this matter. However, the EU are saying that this case is completely unrelated to the 2002 Washinton D.C. antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft. Will the case go through and win? Unlikely. However, the EU is willing to take serious measures, and possibly measures similar to what they did with Windows Media Center.The evidence gathered during the investigation leads the Commission to believe that the tying of Internet Explorer with Windows, which makes Internet Explorer available on 90 percent of the world's PCs, distorts competition on the merits between competing web browsers insofar as it provides Internet Explorer with an artificial distribution advantage which other web browsers are unable to match.
The Commission is concerned that through the tying, Microsoft shields Internet Explorer from head to head competition with other browsers which is detrimental to the pace of product innovation and to the quality of products which consumers ultimately obtain.
In addition, the Commission is concerned that the ubiquity of Internet Explorer creates artificial incentives for content providers and software developers to design websites or software primarily for Internet Explorer which ultimately risks undermining competition and innovation in the provision of services to consumers.
But let's not forget that EU has some support from Opera. Opera's chief executive has long been a Microsoft Critic, and will undoubtedly find some excuses to take IE off of Windows, and maybe even other programs too. It's unlikely for Opera to really get any market share from this anyway, because firefox is the 2nd most popular browser in Europe with over 30% share. Perhaps the EU shouldn't really be chasing microsoft now, seeing as they've already decided to unbundle some good programs on Windows 7, whereas apple and linux are just stuffing as many apps as they can.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
New Internet Explorer 8 Videos of features
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 came with a lot of new features and functions that were new and unique to their browser. Microsoft said before that speed was not their highest priority, unlike Google Chrome, where speed means everything. For Internet Explorer, they wanted to make it much easier for the user to use, and with all these new features, you really can't expect to master them all easily. However, the IE8 team put together a bunch of videos which can help to explain these new features.
Here's the link to them: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=ie8videos.
Have you tried out Internet Explorer Beta 2? What did you think of it? There are lots of bugs in it, but their new features are definitely heating up the competition. Thanks you them, firefox had to add new privacy tools to match inPrivate browsing. Microsoft is taking a great step forward to making IE8 more user-friendly and keeping their customers happy. Although I don't see how their market share could possibly drop, it's obvious that this new browser will make web-browsing much easier for the ordinary folks who don't have the time or patience to install new browsers.
Why Zune is starting to gain traction
Microsoft still has a long way to go, to catch up with Apple, or even SanDisk in the portable mp3 player market. Since their big update, there have been significant changes, but they still don't quite match up to the iPods. However, Microsoft's plan is a good one, and it can help them gain some significant market share over time.
There are 2 things that make Microsoft stand out, and is probably going to help them gain more market share.
1) Their new update was made available FREE to all existing Zune users. This means that they will build a lot of customer loyalty and expand their customer base. Unlike the way Apple does things, Microsoft has decided that they will approach this by not significantly upgrading the new Zunes, and instead adding new software features that will be fully compatible with the old Zunes. This was made possible because the original Zunes were made to be Wi-Fi capable, even though that wasn't very useful back then. Now that they have improved their Wi-Fi usage in their networking and new options for downloading/streaming music, all their Zunes can enjoy these features. It's always a hard decision when you are thinking of whether to leave behind the old users and bring new and better features to your device, or keep your existing customer happy by making the features available easily to them. Apple generally has left the customer int he dust by forcing them to get new devices for the new updates, or forcing them to pay extra for it. An example of this is with the release of the new iPod touches where you either have to get the devices, or pay $10 if you are currently using V 1.9. For Microsoft, they gain another advantage by making these new updates available to existing customers. Since many of their features involve using the network and sharing with other users, it makes sense that by expanding their customer base, they make these features better.
2) Subscription Music is something that Microsoft seems to stand alone with, although some might say that it is one that doesn't really help much. I find that with subscription music before, they were really limited in music options. However, this new update definitely improves that feature, by making it far easier for users to find music they like. There are now channels that users can use to find new music related to the genre, or that the Zune thinks they will like. These channels provide regular updates to keep up with the public tastes and new songs. It definitely can give users many more songs that they may never find otherwise. Along with the channels, there is also the Buy from FM feature that really adds to the potential of subsciptions. A study sponsored by Microsoft showed that radio stations still account for a large part of users finding new music. If Microsoft can expand their subscription music options further, or to make more music available through subscription music, then it can certainly attract many new customers and help to further improve their networks by bringing in more users and new music.
The Zune will not skyrocket in market share overnight, and even Microsoft said themselves that it would take years to seriously compete with the iPods. What Microsoft should be doing is use more of their resources to first overtake SanDisk and build up their customer base. If they can continue to make good decisions about whether to leave users behind or making updates available easily, then they will be well on the path to gaining more market share.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Microsoft's hyped up ad is buzzing with nothing
What's up with the new ad that depicts Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld? It's barely related to Microsoft! So what is up with all this talk about it? Everyone seems to think the ad is useless. Well, I don't think so.
Think about it like this: Microsoft wanted everyone to start talking about their ads, to give it lots of attention, and maybe strengthen the brand name. Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld are both iconic figures of our society. I'm sure most people have AT LEAST seen or heard their names somewhere. Now we've got this combination of the genius who became the "corporate villain" and then uses the money to give back to society, and then we've got the Jerry Seinfeld persona.
Most people are probably thinking the ad was a complete failure, but it's actually going according to plan. Microsoft wanted to start conversations and make everyone talk about them. It looks like it's going the right way. The ad was probably a way to kick off their campaign, although even to me, it seems a little TOO much about nothing related to Microsoft.
Soon, with the next few ads and commercials, they will start to introduce their products, and try to make everyone think that their products are the standard and that you can trust them. I suspect that this strategy will cause a lot more anticipation and talk about the next few ads than if they started with an ad that was promoting their products. It's obviously something that people may want to pay more attention to, now that they feel as if Microsoft did it wrong the first time. We'll just have to see how it plays out, and it'll likely continue to be an effective marketing plan.
We'll post updates as soon as I can get them. Be sure to subscribe to our feed if you don't want to miss anything!
Xbox 360 with a major price cut
On Wednesday, Microsoft announced they would slash the prices of their Xbox 360s, with the Xbox 360 Arcade version going down to $199! Now I know Wednesday was 2 days ago, but we were busy checking out Chrome, and so we're gonna talk about something a little different now, even if it's a little late.
So, why are they cutting prices? Well, they want to be more of a competitor against the Wii. You may or may not know this, but since the Wii was released, it sold more units than the Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 combined. Plus, the Xbox 360 was at the low end of the triple competition. You can guess than Microsoft would want to sell some more units as the holiday season comes along.
As well, the Xbox 360 will be priced at $299, and Xbox 360 elite going for $399.
But it's really not all about the price, although I'm sure the Xbox will sell more units now. However, Microsoft's gotta take into consideration the profitability of such. Most people probably bought the Wii because of the new innovation, so they will probably continue to buy the Wii. However, with these price cuts, people who don't have the budget for a Wii, can now get an Xbox 360, which isn't all that bad except it doesn't have the motion controller.
Would you buy an Xbox now because of the price cuts? Tell me what you think with a comment.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Microsoft finally shows new interest with IE8 Beta 2
A while ago, Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 was released to the general public which meant it was ready for some general testing. Most of the new features on IE8 were created to catch up with all the much better competing browsers. However, there were some good new features that make it unique. Of course, lots of criticism has also come up, saying how bad IE8 compared to other browsers like Firefox. But it's a Beta, so you shouldn't expect too much from it. I was pretty surprised to see how far IE8 had progressed from IE7, but it still has a ways to go.
Here's a brief review of the unique features of IE8 Beta 2:
The accelerators, which were called activities in Beta 1, are definitely a great improvement and very useful tool in general for most people. With plenty of different activities to choose from, and probably plenty more to come (it's open to developers so custom accelerators can be built), it'll provide convenience for the users. It's kind of like AnswerTips except with a lot more options.
Web Slices is also a new feature that is helpful to get you the information you want from your favorite websites without having to load them. I personally won't have much use for it because I don't check for updates to things much but they are useful and you can think of it as a mini feed reader that reads websites instead of feeds, which is quite interesting.
Their new tab system is also much improved and shows that they are starting to innovate on existing features. Now, tabs are color coded in groups, so that whenever you click on a link to go to a new tab, the new tab will be in the same color category for easy browsing. You can also close groups of tabs together.
They've also got the visual search which is in my opinion pretty useless. It really doesn't do anything to help you search for better results unless all the search results look the same except for the images.
By the way, if you haven't tried beta 2 yet, I suggest you don't. It's highly unstable and has many bugs which are bound to happen because it's still a beta. There are enormous amounts of errors that can occur, and it sometimes closes by itself randomly. Fortunately, their backup system is great! It actaully boasts the ability to back up your tabs properly and quickly. Also, it can just close one tab after it finds that only one tab is responsible for errors.
That pretty much sums up IE8 beta 2, except I should mention that with IE8, the IE line of uncompliant browsers will stop. Now, webmasters' two CSS sheets are no longer for IE and the other browsers, but instead for IE7+under, and IE8+firefox and all the other compliant browsers. I hope IE8 will prove to be a great browser. After all, IE still holds the dominant position in terms of market share, which means most people are still plagued by IE7's lack of features and performance and are putting up with it by being too lazy to switch, or just want to be loyal to Microsoft. IE8 still has a lot of catch up to do, but at least Microsoft seems to be finally showing some interest in this browser field.
Tags:
Monday, August 18, 2008
Live Mesh Expands
Microsoft announced the expansion of their Live Mesh in a blog post. If you didn't know yet, Live Mesh is a software to allow synchronization among many devices, which you can find more info on, if you search up Live Mesh.
Previously, this service was only available without a wait list to the USA, but was then expanded to include the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. It has now been expanded to also include Canada, India, and Ireland.
They still have a limit to the users they'll allow to their preview without a wait list so those who want to take advantage should do so quickly.
Popular Posts
-
Want to make easy money online using an effective, fast system that is proven to work? You're probably tired of scams and pyramiding sc...
-
One of the hottest foods around has been the Casa di Mama Pizza from Dr. Oetker. Are you a fan of this pizza? I can't blame you, it'...
-
This is our first Helpful answers post, and I hope you will like it. For those of you who have always wondered about "Why do we use the...
-
With the latest financial problems at Wall Street and the credit crunch, one would really think the online advertising industry would start ...
-
Send me One Million FREE Guaranteed Visitors! This is an easy to set up method of getting MASSIVE FREE TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE! Just click the ...
-
When HTML 5's basic functions became widely known and started to be seriously developed to be the successor to HTML 4, Silverlight and F...
-
The battle's on, the heat is burning up, and all eyes look to the onslaught before us. This could be one of the biggest browser battles ...
-
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile . All opinions are 100% mine. Smartphones today are everywhere. If you don...
-
I've decided to implement a new site-wide policy list. This list is in no way complete, and so it will be added on to further. Each poli...
-
One of the hottest names in the tech industry, Google (GOOG) seems to be taking the world by storm, bringing all sorts of new products such ...
Blog Directories
