Microsoft: iTunes Store too limited for Windows users

That is funny....he says it limits the choice of Windows users...that they are used to have a variety of options. Looks like they have already chose considering that the iPod has over 30% of the digital media player market. Since when was M$ an advocate of consumer choice.
 
It sounds like Windows users do not share the opinion of the Product Manager !
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3207984.stm

This is going to make Bill cry out loud. Maybe form an alliance to fight the "Apple's" Devil.

Should Dave Fester make another statement admitting that he should think twice before saying things he shouldn't have said?

As Chevy wrote: "... it seems as if Windows users do not share the Product Manager's opinion!..."

M$ has one option though... a blackmail.

Oh, did you know guys that iTunes runs better than Windows Media Player on xp?
 
I'm playing with it on my desktop PC. It's a nice app, really. It certainly makes PC users wonder why Windows looks so bad behind that nice iTunes window. :p

Rendezvous working very, very fine. Maybe I'll have a sound server in my apartment now after all? :)
 
Heh, M$ making that comment? Funny, I think how all the word documents that are not made with the latest and most expensive version of M$ Office refuse to be opened with any other form of M$ Office ....

Maybe they meant windows users will miss their realplayer files etc? :-/
 
ok im gonna be the first to have a different opinion here :p

i agree with MS here, as far as a windows music store option goes, apples itunes store and ipod is a very limiting option, you cannot get around the fact that you cannot use any other mp3 player with itunes, and IMHO thats a good thing for apple, but a horrible thing for the common consumer

if i didnt have an ipod, i would be peeved that i couldnt use the better of the music stores right now. i would have no choice but to use one service and one player....

but to apple this is security, it doessnt want a music store where people could buy other mp3 players to use with it and thus cut apples "music" profitability down greatly by losing ipod sales.

whats good for apple and whats good for the consumer are not always the same things, and i can definitely see only ipod users using the music store really
 
Originally posted by Jason
you cannot get around the fact that you cannot use any other mp3 player with itunes
Click to expand...

Well, wait, the Mac version of iTunes supports iPod as well as other chip-based MP3 players, right? Anybody know about windows iTunes MP3 player support.

May have to agree with you on this point, though.
 
why can't you use another mp3 player with itunes? It worked fine with my Rio Volt MP3 Player...

Sure it won't play MP4/M4Ps, but it worked fine with all my MP3s! :p

(yeah, I know - you mean "won't work with M4Ps" when you say "won't work with iTunes") :p
 
i meant the music store and apples proprietary format, i didnt think i would have to spell it out.
 
i think you people are missing the point entirely.

let's see, why would a microsoft spokesman support napster? hmm...
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/oct03/10-09NapsterMedia9PR.asp

shabam. this is the only reason microsoft is attacking itunes. itunes = aac mp4. apple doesn't own mp4, therefore, it's really going to take off as opposed to wma. microsoft, once again, is enforcing its own standards. they've been doing this for years with office, they'll start again with wma.
 
well, iTunes is an Apple product with an genius idea to buy music legally online. Now, Apple made this option available for the wintel world as a strategic move which surprised M$ indeed.

Their (M$) negative comments on Apple's move shows that there'll be a fierce competition in wintel's field itself where M$ thought had control over.

Even if OSX was made available for Intel, M$ will say it's such a limited product to Windows users.
 
apples proprietary format
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Uh, you know that AAC/mp4/m4a etc is an MPEG standard right, not something apple stuck together to compete with a standards based, better alternative.
Yes MPEG4 and AAC are based on Quicktime technology. the MPEG standards group went to Apple and said basically "We're making MPEG 4. We want to use quicktime."
Microsoft is having a cry because people are realizing that WMA and WM in general is crap, and that open formats, with STANDARDS are more and more the best option.
 
How long do you guys think it will be until Napster 2.0 moves to Mac? Oh yeah, never! Funny, though, I don't see a lot of people crying about Napster on either of the OS continents.
 
Apple dont make any money out of the itune store. They make their money from ipods. Other download stores will find it very difficult to compete with apple because they're no sound business reason to sell downloads on their own. Hence their lacklustre "toe in the water" approach before Apple did it with "both feet first".

I think this is the first of the new technology wars that M$ has lost outright. Almost like a 5 day war, M$ had spent years trying to make wma succesful. Using there monopolistic ability (i.e. windows) to spead the gospel of wma. Overnight Apple have staged a military coup!!

All the third party mp3 players will adopt AAC very soon because its a free standard and there will demand it (i.e. windows store has already sold 1 million aac songs and it has 70% of the download market). M$ cant tell samsung/creative et al to not use AAC. Wma is gonna die pretty quickly and as big as microsoft is, they cant do anything about it. Who knows what the implications for DRM/WMA will be in longhorn if wma isnt succefull anymore..

Companies like M$, Dell, Apple etc.. are having to diversify to grow, the growth areas are not OS's, Wintel boxes or PowerMacs. The growth areas are consumer devices (ipod, xbox, cell phones etc..) and all these companies are re-positioning themselves. M$ has lost a major battle overnight and that is why they have been so public in their condemnation of itunes.

Also, Apples name on millions of PC's around the world is gonna do wonders for brand awareness. You can be sure Apple will be puting that to good use in the future ...
 
The Register had a decent article about why DRM had to go (or at least be opened to competitors quite a bit), or the iPod had to go. While I don't agree completely, I think that if iTunes Music Store is going to have any long-term success, Apple's going to have to abandon the Apple-only strategy, or at least relax it considerably. Just license the DRM technology, that's what I say...

It's pretty unbalanced reporting on the part of Ashlee Vance, but here it is

(Edit - sorry, the unbalanced article I referred to is actually this one , which talks about the 1 million iTunes sold, etc. The article above actually references the stuff I originally talked about =)
 
mmm..
I dont understand M$'s train of thought. AAC is a free standard, WMA is a microsoft standard. Microsoft have encouraged(or forced?) companies to adopt this standard for years, that is the only reason there are 40 players on the market that use wma and 1 that uses AAC. AAC is a better codec and is free to implement. Someone had to use it in a music player first and Apple did, it doesnt mean every other manufacturer loves wma!

The fact is M$ has been caught with its trousers down. Time and time again it has proven it hasnt got what it takes to market consumer hardware effectively. It didnt really care about downloads cos it didnt make any money. Then Apple come along and figure out a way of linking downloads with ipods (and make money of ipods instead of downloads) and now M$ are screaming blue murder! M$ know they dont have the brand name to sell Music Players like Apple or Sony have. M$ branding beyond computers is crap!

The wider implications are that are number of big corporations are trying to look beyond M$ as the be all and end all. Since the virus outbreaks over the summer, big firms are looking at ways to not rely on M$. Japanese/korean/Chinese goverments are already looking at developing their own OS as an alternative to windows. M$ complacency is starting to cost them. Apple have provided a way for music player companies to bypass M$ and still have DRM. Is M$ pissed? Sure as hell they are ....


Also, while I'm here. This thing about "choice" is total crap. M$ talk about "choice" when it suits them. They integrate so many propietary standards in their OS that nobody really has any choices but microsoft ways. If someone develops something and they want a peice, they invent a new thing (J++, wma etc..) and embed it in the OS. They then cripple anyone elses technology so theirs is king. What kind of choice is that?
 
Originally posted by threesixty
I think this is the first of the new technology wars that M$ has lost outright. Almost like a 5 day war, M$ had spent years trying to make wma succesful. Using there monopolistic ability (i.e. windows) to spead the gospel of wma. Overnight Apple have staged a military coup!!
Click to expand...

Dude, are you currently writing a war novel or something? lol. You made this sound downright exciting.
 
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