Appearantly, Microsoft wants to enter into this area again. I recall that Microsoft had one similar product before called "Microsoft Photo Draw" that was published with Office 2000 but was discontinued before Office XP came to the market. According their said, this code-named 'Acrylic' is aimed at print, web, video and interactive media designers.
I am using Macromedia Fireworks mainly for my web design work, and am currently reviewing some other programs to see which one is more workable for me, for example, Paint.net, Adobe PhotoShop Elements, Adobe PhotoShop, and this new Acrylic beta. Haven't tested a lot on this new beta, however, so far I still prefer Fireworks. I am not a professional graphic designer and all I want is to easily get my web design parts like logo, banner, polished text, icon, and button exported. So "Slice" is a must to have feature to me but not all programs could do it as easy as Fireworks does, PhotoShop Elements doesn't even have it. However, more program I learn more choices I can have in my hand.
Acrylic official website
Microsoft Tests Pro Graphics Market with Acrylic