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Microsoft Announces Windows Media Now Supported By More Than 500 Devices, Up 150 Percent Since 2003 CES | |
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| Time: 14:13 EST/19:13 GMT | News Source: Microsoft Press Release | Posted By: Jonathan Tigner | ||
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Today at the 2004 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Microsoft Corp. announced that support for Windows Media® on consumer electronics devices has grown 150 percent since the 2003 CES, resulting in more than 500 devices that now support Windows Media. These new devices add to the broad choice of devices for consumers supporting Windows Media. Also, new portable music players from leading consumer electronics manufacturers increase the size of the world's largest installed base of secure portable digital music players, bringing the tally to more than 4 million devices supporting Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Digital Rights Management. In addition, Apex Digital Inc., KiSS Technology and Malata North America today announced the first DVD players supporting Windows Media Video (WMV) 9, and leading chip manufacturers Sand Video Inc. and Sigma Designs Inc. announced new chips supporting playback of high-definition WMV 9. Together, these new devices and chips help ensure that consumers can enjoy a wide variety of content on their choice of devices throughout the home and on the go. | ||
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| #1 By 1845 (67.161.212.73) at 1/8/2004 6:36:58 PM |
| I wonder how many devices support AAC? I wonder if we should call standard, whatever the market decides it likes best. Since all of those devices aren't running Windows, one can't blame the Windows monopoly for the acceptance of Windows Media technology. |
| #2 By 3339 (64.160.58.135) at 1/8/2004 8:32:57 PM |
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That's easy, Bob. There's only 4 million WMA devices? That's pathetic. Apple alone ahs provided 2 million AAC devices. With HP and Real making moves, there is little concern there... And since we are talking about the mpeg family why not include mp3 devices? Naw, wouldn't want that.
As for video, it's almost exclusively DVD players. Every single DVD player ever produced supports mpeg-2. I don't really know what you are talking about in reference to not running Windows--I would guess less then .1% of the world's DVD players, CD players, mp3 players, video cameras, digital cameras, etc... run Windows, but that doesn't prevent mpeg standards from being the standards for those devices. |
| #3 By 3339 (64.160.58.135) at 1/8/2004 8:48:06 PM |
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http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/dec/18quicktime.html
6.5 million phones now have 3GPP support; how many MS Smartphones are there with this level of video streaming? Hell, what are KDDI and Okinawa Cellular thinking? Their phones don't run an Apple OS, there's no way in hell QT/mpeg-4 can be the best in the market, and they're accepting the Apple option? No way! |
| #5 By 2459 (24.175.137.164) at 1/8/2004 9:36:00 PM |
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"And since we are talking about the mpeg family why not include mp3 devices? Naw, wouldn't want that."
Of course not because it'd just muddy the numbers since all/almost all wma/v and aac devices also support mp3 (or do you mean players that support mp3 exclusively?). Besides, mp3 is lower quality than either wma or aac. |
| #6 By 1845 (67.161.212.73) at 1/9/2004 12:13:12 AM |
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parker, that's a bit of a rash statement, I should think. First, I suspect there is more momentum surrounding MPEG-4 than Divx (or Xvid). Second, even if Divx and WMV dwarf MPEG-4, there is still considerable MPEG-4 content, production tools, paid licenses, etc. The MPEG folks aren't going away in the near future any more than GIF went away because Unisys required what many considered too high fees for its usage.
jerk, huh? You didn't answer my question, which related to the number of AAC not WMA devices. MP3? What of it? I don't see how that has any bearing on my statements concerning AAC or WMA. WRT your numbers, I have a bit to say. Last I heard Apple had shipped 1.4 million iPods. That's quite a bit less than 2 million. As of May, Creative had shipped more Nomads than Apple had shipped iPods. So, if we consider that there are several other players that support WMA than the Nomad series, we see that it would seem that a considerable number of portable music players alone support WMA. This speaks nothing of devices that support WMV. BTW, where did you come up with your number of 4 million. I'd like to see stats on that. You obviously did not understand what I was getting at WRT the Windows monopoly. It's really simple - many claim that WM is adopted and used because WMP is installed with Windows. To that I respond, since Windows does not live on most of the portable music players, the reason those devices support WMA must not be due to some monopoly issue, but rather because the market demands support for WMA on the non-Windows devices. |
| #7 By 135 (208.186.90.91) at 1/9/2004 12:45:01 AM |
| I see no reason why devices shouldn't support both. |
| #8 By 3339 (64.160.58.135) at 1/9/2004 12:38:30 PM |
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parker, you do realize that H.264 is about to become a part of mpeg-4, right? H.263 was added about 6 months ago.
mpeg-4 hasn't lost momentum. I'd predict that you'll see a major momentum shift this year. mpeg-4 is just getting to the crucial point, but it's difficult to see the slow, quiet building momentum... By the middle of the year, most devices will support it and/or AAC (if strictly audio). Bob, the numbers for the iPods have been announced and reported everywhere this week. Find it yourself. Strange claim about the Nomad since they are no where to be seen in the top 5 mp3 players (also widely reported) but all three current sizes of the iPod are. I thought I had done a very good job of answering your question: 2 million iPods. I pointed to 11 devices that support AAC. I made oblique references to HP, Real, Panasonic, Nokia supporting AAC in a big way going forward. The rest of my initial post was to point out that MS's numbers aren't that significant (who cares if a DVD player has WMV support if only 16 movies out of millions are available?), etc... And to make the point that all devices that had suported and continued to support mpeg-2 or mp3 will ultimately migrate to mpeg-4 and AAC. As for your monopoly claim: that's how you see it. I could care less about what's installed (although I still think there are issues with what competition is able to do...) I see many of MS's other tactics as for more responsible for WM acceptance. Licensing at below cost, offering favorable business relationships, investments, etc... for adoption... There are numerous techniques that they are engaged in that no other company, or rather only a monopoly, could pull off successfully. |
| #9 By 2459 (24.175.137.164) at 1/9/2004 1:19:10 PM |
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"By the middle of the year, most devices will support it and/or AAC (if strictly audio)."
Hopefully they'll have compatability issues worked out by then. :-) RealPlayer 10 visually resembles the company's previous media player, RealOne, but adds support for a variety of new devices, including Apple's popular iPod and palmOne's Treo 600, and all popular media formats, including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, and WMA. Strangely, though, users can't copy music that they purchase from the Music Store service to an iPod--even though RealPlayer 10 supports the iPod--because of an incompatibility between the versions of AAC that RealNetworks and Apple use. These kinds of incompatibilities are sure to bedevil users and cause confusion. http://www.winnetmag.com/windowspaulthurrott/Article/ArticleID/41370/windowspaulthurrott_41370.html |
| #10 By 2459 (24.175.137.164) at 1/9/2004 1:22:08 PM |
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Another interesting tidbit from PT, sodajerk:
[CES 2003] Exclusive: HP Working to Get WMA on iPod HP's blockbuster deal with Apple will (see details below) will have one exciting side effect, I discovered today: The company will be working with Apple to add support for Microsoft's superior Windows Media Audio (WMA) format to the iPod by mid-year. You heard it here first. http://www.winnetmag.com/windowspaulthurrott/Article/ArticleID/41423/windowspaulthurrott_41423.html |
| #11 By 3339 (64.160.58.135) at 1/9/2004 1:39:29 PM |
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enforcer, so what? For one thing, PT is generally misinformed and self-deluded on Apple topics. But so what to #13, PT is trying to pretend that the iTMS and iPod are not the standard even though they have 70% and 51% of the market respectively. I can't copy crap bought from BuyMusic or Napster on to an iPod either, but that's not preventing Apple from leading.
As for #14, we'll see. And I don't have a problem with multiple format support. It does kind of destroy PT's pathetic little predictions that Apple will be crushed because they are too closed, doesn't it? I love how he also says Media2Go is going to kill the iPod, and Apple should be worried... for Holiday 2004. Yeah, Apple has both their fists shoved up their butts and are doing nothing... Whatever, PT is quite frequently a complete moron. |
| #12 By 3339 (64.160.58.135) at 1/9/2004 1:42:37 PM |
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Oh, and this: "Hopefully they'll have compatability issues worked out by then. :-)"
There are NO AAC compatibility problems. RealPlayer plays normal AAC files. iTunes does too. A file encoded from iTunes or RealPlayer will work with each other. It is only DRM which is incompatible, but DRM is only on tunes bought through a download service. WHy is it every once in a while people act as if no other music or files can be played from an app or device unless they are purchased through a store? Makes no sense. Most music files have ZERO DRM. |
| #13 By 135 (209.180.28.6) at 1/9/2004 2:07:51 PM |
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It would be good if the iPod supported WMA in addition to AAC.
I'm getting really tired of hardware manufacturers trying to stick you with devices that support their own proprietary formats. That's the whole reason why I moved away from the Commodore world towards the x86 platform back in the early 90's... I was tired of getting locked in to a proprietary platform and not being able to find compatible software and hardware. |
| #14 By 3339 (64.160.58.135) at 1/9/2004 2:33:42 PM |
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parker they do have 51% of the mp3 player market and 70% of paid downloads.
This is according to the largest, most reputable tracking company in the world. Come up with some data if you want to claim these facts from Nielsen Soundscan as Steve Jobs' lies. And nobody is disputing that subscription services push more songs than download services where they are purchased. But then again, from economic point-of-view subscription services don't do anything for the studios and artists either. |
| #15 By 2459 (24.175.137.164) at 1/9/2004 3:29:53 PM |
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I know it's the DRM differences that make them incompatable. The point is, WMA doesn't have this problem. Beyond simply iTMS or Real's implementations, the fact is AAC/MP4 has no standard DRM component, so this presents a significant disadvantage when compared to WMA/V. For instances where you can't play a file because you can't strip the DRM away, you're no better off than you were multiple base formats portability-wise.
AFA Nielsen Soundscan, parker covered that a couple days ago sighting Jobs' numbers left out one service's numbers, Napster IIRC. This post was edited by n4cer on Friday, January 09, 2004 at 15:32. |
| #16 By 3339 (64.160.58.135) at 1/9/2004 4:50:04 PM |
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enforcer, Napster is now included in the Soundscan numbers. Parker hasn't "handled" anything. He continues to just say: Jobs lies, Jobs lies! But his counterarguments rely on figures that are estimates from 3 months ago, six months ago, that include data we aren't talking about, etc...
The DRM issue I don't see as a big one. Right now the studios are using it as a way to limit their risks. The issue IS definitely faced by MS as their files (used by 7+ stores) can't play on 50% of the players being sold. Fairplay can be played on 50% of the players being sold. Real's can be played on 50% and they can play both of the others via their app. And mpeg is standardizing on a rights management platform as we speak. And, as I said, the number of DRMed tunes is miniscule in comparison to the number of non-DRMed files. Hell, if we just estimate 1000 songs on those 2,000,000 iPods, iTMS tracks would only be 2.5% of the tracks. Parker, your argument remains pathetic. The only numbers you are citing are Nielsen numbers, but it is Nielsen who has said 51% of the mp3 player market and 70% of the download purchase market. Nielsen has admitted that they weren't able to track all downloads for the period cited. And your TBR link: it's from 3 months ago and is quoting NPD from an even earlier period. Catch up to the present day, man. And what does "at least" mean? And, again, why haven't we heard ANY numbers from Napster, MusicMatch, BuyMusic, et al... Even Real will only mention subscription numbers, not download purchases. Why? This post was edited by sodajerk on Friday, January 09, 2004 at 17:16. |
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