Microsoft tries out a Flash competitor: Silverlight

When the giant starts moving, everybody shakes. Adobe must be a worried company, with Microsoft starting to closely eye their staked out space on the web. Microsoft so far has been a company focused on the desktop with a mighty OS and an immense cash generating Office Suite. It has not exactly been too focused on the web space, falling behind Google in terms of advertising and search capabilities, and ceding the web application space to the likes of Adobe's Dreamweaver and Flash, and the big daddy of them all, Photoshop.
Microsoft is now challenging this in a big way, with the latest challenge coming to the Flash dominancy of Adobe. Flash, that is now massively popular all over the web, and with Flash Video on course to becoming the favourite online video type, has been the jewel crown of Adobe ever since the acquisition of Macromedia.
Now Microsoft is releasing a browser plug-in called Silverlight by the end of the month in Beta, trying to compete in the Flash space. With its new Expression line of products, Microsoft has already been competing against Adobe for the designer market (as opposed to its conventional development tools). These new tools seek to compete against Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and the like, and add the developmental touch to the design platform.
The battle is going to be much fiercer, Adobe currently owns this area and is not known for letting go of its market so easily, while Microsoft is a down and out fighter known for employing all tactics to beat its competition. The decider for dominancy in this market is not likely to be known for a couple of years at least, but in the end, it's simple, the platform and tools used by a majority of users will decide the winner.