On his istartedsomething.com weblog, Long Zheng factors to a November 9 employment posting from Microsoft. Internet pontificators,
Office Professional, which includes Zheng, are reading the ad as stating Microsoft is thinking about developing a head-to-head competitor with Flickr.But read the very first couple of lines of that Microsoft work posting again:“Come make Windows Live the best place to share your digital memories! Heard of Flickr? YouTube? How about. Mac? This role will work across the new Windows Live division with teams like Spaces, SkyDrive, Messenger and Hotmail to construct a winning strategy for Microsoft in photo and video sharing.”I think Microsoft has its sites set on establishing something much grander than Flickr. I read this ad as Microsoft building an Apple iLife competitor. Word of these kinds of a competitor first surfaced over a year ago. At that time,
Office 2010 Standard Activation, it was a Microsoft project code-named “Monaco.” From what I heard, Monaco initially was positioned to be a music-making program,
Office 2010 Professional Plus X64, akin to Apple;s GarageBand.But Monaco — or its successor — might be something bigger. The Digital Memories Experience (DMX) team, which is the one advertising for the program manager opening, is part of the Windows Live Experience division (WLX/LEX), “which also includes Mail,
Office 2010 X86, Hotmail, Messenger, SkyDrive, Spaces, Writer, Calendar, and Family Safety.”Apple;s iLife suite is comprised of GarageBand; iPhoto,
Microsoft Office Home And Business 2010, a photo-management app; iMovie (a movie-making application); the iMac ############## (for photo and video library sharing); iWeb, a Web-site creation tool; and iDVD, a DVD creation tool. Microsoft already has most of these bases covered on the software front, but it has yet to develop serices complements for many of them.What do you think — can and should Microsoft field a suite of consumerish/creative-focused suite of Windows Live services akin to Apple;s iLife?