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iTunes for Windows – Will it take off? | |
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| Time: 11:10 EST/16:10 GMT | News Source: ActiveWin.com | Posted By: Byron Hinson | ||
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With the news over the last few days that Apple are going to start the development of a version iTunes for Windows users, the question is, will any Windows users switch from Windows Media Player or Winamp and why should they? On Monday launched the new iTunes music store, which makes a catalogue of about 200,000 songs from all major record labels available for download to a computer. Liberal licensing terms mean the songs also can be burned to CDs or moved to portable music players, such as Apple's iPod. Apple charges an average of 99 cents per song. |
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Read Only Comments Return to News |
Displaying Comments 1 through 5 of 5 |
This is an archived static copy of ActiveWin.com. |
| #1 By 2459 (24.170.151.19) at Thursday, May 01, 2003 01:17:43 PM |
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I think the main driver behind the success of iTunes on Windows would be its required use to take advantage of the music service, much like it how Quicktime Player is generally required to play Quicktime files.
With that said, iTunes does not offer video playback functionality, nor does it offer Windows Media playback functionality, so it will never fully supplant Windows Media Player or other comperable A/V players of choice. There's also the question of whether Apple will restrict portable playback to only the iPod. Last, there's the possibility that one of the established PC music services, or a new entry, will respond to Apple's offering in the interim and create their own comparable or better offering. If any service provider is watching this post, I'd like a service with comparable or better terms whose media distribution format is Windows Media Lossless (Multichannel where possible). There'd be no quality arguments then, though current bitrate offerings are pretty good. |
| #2 By 3 (62.253.128.4) at Thursday, May 01, 2003 05:37:05 PM |
| Firstly it doesn't have Video, it does what it needs to best, play audio. The program is zippier than WMP, it doesn't crash, the size of it is much better as is resizing, the visualisations are far far better (maybe because they are in OpenGL), organisation of music for me in iTunes is much better than WMP, all the help files are better, and the ease of use is perfect. Now with Music Store its even better |
| #3 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at Thursday, May 01, 2003 06:46:52 PM |
| I was told that in British English, "Apple are" is correct and "Apple is" is not. |
| #4 By 135 (208.50.204.91) at Thursday, May 01, 2003 09:43:19 PM |
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The British speak and spell horrible English. The US should launch an education program to get them up to speed with modern usage. :-)
We will begin with color... it does not have a U. Next, harass... it sounds like jackass only with hair in the front instead of jack. It's "Watch your step"... A Mind is something you don't want to waste. Pound is a unit of weight, not money. Oh yeah, and doorknobs belong on the side of the door, not the center... That's not a spelling or grammar thing but it bugs the hell out of me. :) One more thing! If you're going to put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car, at least have the deceny to reverse the shift pattern to make it symetrical! That's it for now. Next week I'll point out how German's can't make good Schnitzel, Beer or Sauerkraut. This post was edited by sodablue on Thursday, May 01, 2003 at 21:48. |
| #5 By 2459 (24.170.151.19) at Friday, May 02, 2003 04:20:32 AM |
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Why should the same application play both audio and video? Because they're both "media"? Why not throw pictures into that mix, so that WMP is the default carrier of your JPEG's and everything else.
Apple made this mistake with Quicktime (integration of picture support). Picture support in a media player generally only works well if the player can act as a browser to browse the directory of pictures, present them in a slideshow format, or just use them for ad content, etc. Audio and Video, however, do go together. WMP provides one app for utilizing and managing both. Why bother with separate applications (Quicktime, DVD Player, iTunes) when I can have all the functionality in one app? Apple is slowly realizing the benefits of integration. Maybe, in time, their 3 apps will evolve into one. BTW, for a good implementation of integrated picture/audio/video support, look no further than Windows XP MCE (until Longhorn or MCE2's release). iTunes focusses on music organization first, task later. Given that the ID3 tags in iTunes govern the locations of the files in their respective hierarchial folders (when whenever you change one, the song name or appropriate artist/album folder sees a change as well), the basic structure of the files is always intact. This can also be accomplished in WMP: (From WMP Help: mk:@MSITStore:%WINDIR%\Help\wmplayer.chm::/htm/player_overview_medialibrary.htm ) Monitor Folders Click to specify which folders you want the Player to monitor for changes to digital media files. Changes include files being added, deleted, moved, or renamed. The changes to the digital media files in the monitored folders are reflected in Media Library immediately. Rename and rearrange music using media information Specifies whether music files in your My Music folder are automatically renamed and rearranged when updated media information is obtained for the files. The music files are automatically reorganized in Media Library based on the updated media information. And by the way... Though I don't particularly care about them, it is absurd to think that WMP even comes close to the orgasm that is iTunes' OpenGL visualizations. Visualization quality/experience has nothing to do with API and everything to do with the visualization developer. Like sphbecker, I haven't seen any iTunes visualizations that can't be accomplished with WMP (a lot faster too). Resolution does have much to do with perceived quality since the default WMP vis res is 320x240. This can give the appearance of blockiness/jaggedness in some configurations. The res can be increased from the options menu. Orgasm? Come now (pun intended), this is nothing but premature exaggeration. ;-) This post was edited by n4cer on Friday, May 02, 2003 at 04:22. |
