Stream Wars: Microsoft Turns Up the Heat

By JackDavidsonOLD December 13, 1999 5:05 PM

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In a keynote speech at the Streaming Media '99 conference in San Jose, CA, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recast himself and his company as a leader of the "digital media revolution".?Gates revealed that Microsoft's "goal is not to be a media company ourselves", but rather make a significant investment of resources into providing the infrastructure that content companies could use to stream their programming.?This puts RealNetworks, which distributes the most popular audio and video streaming software, in a similar position that Netscape was in three years ago.?While Microsoft has been behind in this software category, it's Windows MediaPlayer software has been steadily gaining, with many content companies like Warner Bros.?Online recently announcing the use of Microsoft's software.?

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