Microsoft sells off one of its Expression products

I actually find this pretty disappointing since Expression Media was originally iView Media Pro which Microsoft bought just a few years back. Of course the big concern was what MS would do with the product once they had it. Ironically, a lot of people (myself included) felt MS would do more harm to the app than good. Arguably, that’s exactly what’s happened. Hopefully it will have a good home now.

Microsoft has sold its Expression Media digital-asset-management application to digital-photography vendor Phase One for an undisclosed amount.

Starting May 25, Phase One is handling customer support and future development for Expression Media. Microsoft will continue to offer support for Expression Media retail customers for the next 90 days, officials said.

Another thing that’s unusual is that Microsoft is still stating they’re making competitor products to Adobe’s photography offerings. Quite some time ago they touted there would be a Photoshop equivalent, which of course never materialized. Now, Microsoft is claiming they will have a Lightroom competitor. I won’t hold my breath waiting for that one to appear.

Let’s see, Microsoft’s JPG killer didn’t take off. They’re PDF killer didn’t take off. They’re Flash killer hasn’t made much of a dent. And now they ditched the last of their photography apps. Microsoft has struck out against Adobe a couple of times and now they’re selling off one photo app with grand plans to launch another? Certainly makes me want to buy what they’re offering! Stable, very stable.

Further, Lightroom is on version 3 and has been incredibly successful from day one. It gained a massive and loyal following while it was still in beta and continues to be incredibly successful. I’m a huge fan of it and considering how well it’s been received and I can’t even conceive of a product Microsoft could offer that would best it in features and usability. I really think Microsoft is barking up the wrong tree here.

Microsoft is continuing to make investments in the professional photography space. Microsoft’s FUSE Labs is working on SmartFlow — a competitor to Adobe Lightroom that will include social-networking hooks.

Microsoft sells off one of its Expression products