Windows Media Photo
Microsoft has just recently unveiled a new image format, Windows Media Photo at the WinHEC. This new format is poised to rival the popular JPEG image format used today, and it will soon be supported on Windows XP and Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Vista.
Like every other new image format introduced, Windows Media Photo (WMP) promised to offer better image quality at a higher compression ratio (smaller file size), and many other “smart” algorithms. But do we really need another new image format? I personally do not think so. We already have quite a handful of image formats such as .JPEG, .PNG, .GIF and many other open or proprietary formats.
Is Windows Media Photo just another Microsoft format that will slowly replace all other file formats? First there was the revolutionary MP3, and then came Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio (WMA), as well as a rather similar story behind Microsoft’s Windows Media Video (WMV). Could this be Microsoft’s ultimate dream that one day all our file formats that we use would also be a Microsoft proprietary file format?
When that day comes, it would be even more difficult for any alternative OS (Operating System) to successfully compete with Windows since Microsoft could control the licensing of the file formats that we have already commonly use. Logically, no average Joe would want to hop to a new competing OS that could not support or view their precious photos, videos and audios that they have collected throughout the years. Thus, Microsoft could continue to monopolize on our PC’s OS with its Windows for years to come. Well, this is just my 2 cents of the worst case scenario enlightenment; there will always be an anti-trust case if such scenario does happen to protect the consumers and the industry.
Currently, the licensing details regarding the Windows Media Photo are still being finalized. For a start, I would assume that it would be basically free for all major software and hardware developers such as Apple, Adobe, Canon, Sony and the rest of the industry to adopt the file formats in order to gain a strong adoption rate. But what will the future holds for the future of this new file format remains to be seen.