iPod and WMA Support?

I'm not being petty with the graph thing.

If he makes up a number for a graph, I can't say I necessarily trust his word-of-mouth rumors either.

arn

Well, who uses the wma stores anyway :\

oh... and my thoughts on this...

Assuming this wasn't a stipuation of the HP Deal, Apple has FAR LESS reason to do this than ever before.

With HP's backing, AAC is about to get an enormous boost. Apple may win the format battle because of this. No need to conceed WMA format.

If you had asked me back before iTunes Windows came out... I would have said - Yes, Apple should support WMA. But now... with the Pepsi Deal, AOL deal and HP deal. I say no.

Again... it may have been that HP would only do it with the WMA support... if so, then be that as it may.

arn

Originally posted by arn
oh... and my thoughts on this...

[b]Assuming this wasn't a stipuation of the HP Deal, Apple has FAR LESS reason to do this than ever before.

With HP's backing, AAC is about to get an enormous boost. Apple may win the format battle because of this. No need to conceed WMA format.

If you had asked me back before iTunes Windows came out... I would have said - Yes, Apple should support WMA. But now... with the Pepsi Deal, AOL deal and HP deal. I say no.

Again... it may have been that HP would only do it with the WMA support... if so, then be that as it may.

arn [/B]

And when you add the possibility of a McDonalds deal and that this might not be the only deal of it's kind with HP...Apple has really accomplished alot in less than a year with the iTMS.

I happen to find this amusing i think a lot of the pc sector are highly shocked at this. Hp joining forces with Apple weres the logic. blah simple answer is this hp sees the market leader and joined forces.

Now i am not saying that Apple remain leader but i think that hp sees this as the right choice. why waste R&D on a player when everyone wants an iPod


as for the wma format well if its put onto iPod its great because we can use aac mp3 wma and god knows what else

Originally posted by Sabenth
I happen to find this amusing i think a lot of the pc sector are highly shocked at this. Hp joining forces with Apple weres the logic. blah simple answer is this hp sees the market leader and joined forces.

Like all the Wintel makers, HP is looking for a way to differentiate itself. Every maker from IBM to Dell buys their chipset from either Intel or AMD, then bolts on some hard disk and graphic card. They're all the same. Buy a Dell, or an HP or an IBM and try running performance tests, they're all nearly the same. Try comparing user interface - it's exactly the same Windows XP everywhere. So what is going to set them apart? What is going to make you buy from one company over the other except for minute price differences?

One answer is iTMS pre-loaded and the iPod. Others might come up with something else.

Once the iPod runs any codec, any advantage in MS going at you with a wma product and throwing billions into the task is negated. It's not a poison pill if you control the player and the music store.

if iPod does wma with fairplay it puts MS in a very hard spot to figure out how to control Apple. They wont have any leverage to speak of, everything will be able to be played on the iPod. Apple wins.

it's obvious to me Jobs learned the lesson from the op system wars and decided if he ever got into a leadership position over microsoft again he was gonna make em pay. The time is now.

Who will MS cajole now? Dell is the only major player left, and Mike Dell hates Steve Jobs. Look for MS and Dell to hook up. The race is on.

We can't let WMA continue a life - AT ALL!!!

Arn is right --- Apple needs to stick to its guns and promote AAC

AAC is more compressed, and sounds excellent --- major innovation, technology, and hard work behind it!

Not only does WMA have HORRIBLE compression standards and quality, it also messes things up, in my opinion

I can't see an iPod system handling WMA --- it probably could, but it would severely reduce the speed and usability, by having to take too long to load the WMA files, or simply not playing them at a very good quality

So Apple needs to keep AAC going --- they did the right thing by licensing out the iPod design, now they gotta keep their teeth sunk into the AAC format ---- otherwise, were gonna let ANOTHER LOUSY, windoze format take over the market --- which would be BAD for everyone

AAC FOREVER!!!!

and btw --- I didn't know Mike Dell hated Steve Jobs --- good luck to WinDoZe on developing something better than the iPod --- I can just see it now - WinDoZe coming out with a music player that doesn't allow you to play because someone else is using its operating system, and you're not allowed to operate two things at once

*I hate windoze*

Originally posted by Selecter
Once the iPod runs any codec, any advantage in MS going at you with a wma product and throwing billions into the task is negated. It's not a poison pill if you control the player and the music store.

if iPod does wma with fairplay it puts MS in a very hard spot to figure out how to control Apple. They wont have any leverage to speak of, everything will be able to be played on the iPod. Apple wins.

it's obvious to me Jobs learned the lesson from the op system wars and decided if he ever got into a leadership position over microsoft again he was gonna make em pay. The time is now.

but if the ipod supports WMA apple no longer controls the store, napster, wallmart, buymusic, et al will have their music playable on ipods (can you imagine the advertising campaing, "walmart music is now ipod compliant, and only $.89 for the same songs!).

the problem with apple is they will never be able to compete with dell or microsoft for leveraging cheap manufacturing deals. the ipod will always be more expensive than competitor's products.

if, however, the ipod becomes impossible to ignore (60-70% market share) by napster, buymusic, wallmart and any new startup, that's when apple wins. those stores have the option of allowing non-DRM mp3/AAC files, which i highly doubt the RIAA will allow, or offering DRM'd mp4/aac... because apple owns the hardware they can insist on the DRM being fairplay. now apple controls both the store and the player. they just have to wait as other stores either sign up for AAC or die off. the more stores that support AAC the more ipods get sold.

then once apple has 60-70% of the player market, revenue from the iTMS and license fees from the other smart companies. they can use the economic leverage (or the combined buying power of their licensees) to offer downloads at the same price as microsoft.

then as a death blow to microsoft you could offer WMA... though i think WMA would already be dead by that point.

Yes, I agree that HP has gone with "if you can't beat them, join them" here. Why compete with the iPod and crash and burn like the others?

On the other hand, HP is probably nervous about keeping Microsoft on their side, hence they would really like WMA support. But I doubt it's written in the contract with Apple. I don't think Apple is that desperate that they need to agree to terms like those. They are too stubborn for that anway!

As Arn says, the HP deal is a reason not to back WMA, as AAC could really start to take off, especially with the developments regarding RealNetworks and the Sony PSP...