Microsoft has dabbled in the web creation industry in the past with Microsoft Office Frontpage and Publisher, but they haven’t really dug deep into the industry at all. Here they are releasing a product called Microsoft Expression Web which is geared towards students, business professionals, and well, basically everyone.
It doesn’t come at a cheap price though. Looking at the Best Buy listing, it’s running for $269.99 retail. To my surprise as well, it’s only available at Best Buy, Staples, and Amazon.com. This new application will be a direct competitor of Macromedia Fireworks/Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop. While Microsoft is very late in the game, they seem they have the ability to pick up the slack and actually get back into it.
As always, I feel that Microsoft will fail with this new product since the market is dominated by much better products already. See my review of the Adobe Web Bundle and how passionate I am about the amazing software that Adobe and Macromedia develop.
It does seem though, that Microsoft is teaming up with iView to put out this latest product and again, include multiple versions. Honestly, what’s the deal with Microsoft creating a bajillion versions of everything now? There’s really no reason for it. Do what Apple does, create one version and be happy.
