Windowsmedia - the Role of Microsoft Corporation in the Current Multimedia Industry

This report will evaluate the role of Microsoft Corporation in the current multimedia industry. In order to get an impression about Microsoft's business, there is an overview of Microsoft's products and services at first. Next, it will be Microsoft's strongest competitors in the operating system market as most consumers of multimedia services have a Windows operating system which included a player for multimedia content. This player called Windows Media Player is being discussed and compared to the RealNetworks' RealOne player which is regarded as one of Microsoft's strongest competitors in the multimedia business. Consecutively, there is an investigation of electronic devices currently supporting the technology provided by Microsoft including different audio- and video codecs. Finally, there is a conclusion showing the results of the research and giving some recommendations when deciding which multimedia environment to choose: Microsoft or RealNetworks.