macnn/ipodnn
01/31/2008, 3:00pm, EST
Thursday, January 31st
iTunes surpasses RealPlayer, more unique users
Apple's iTunes software surpassed RealPlayer in unique users for the first time in April of 2007, according to WebSiteOptimization.com, and was the only contender among the four major streaming media players to show a positive growth rate over the past year. iTunes grew 26.8 percent from December 2006 to December 2007, while QuickTime and RealPlayer usage fell 8.6 percent and 17.5 percent, respectfully. Windows Media Player, meanwhile, remained essentially flat over the past year.
Apple recently reported its best quarter in history after unveiling iTunes movie rentals at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. The company confirmed deals with every major studio -- including Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, New Line Cinema, Fox, Sony, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Touchstone.
All studios agreed to offer their movies to iTunes customers on a rent-to-watch basis, with old and new standard-definition releases priced at $2.99 and $3.99, respectfully. HD-quality versions are also available for $1 more, and new releases will arrive 30 days after their retail DVD shipment.
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The fact that they claim they "just" passed realplayer, then mentioning it happened 9 months ago, doesn't help things.
And I notice Apple's charging two different prices for their rental strategies (four, if you count the HD side of things). I thought Apple was against the whole "variable pricing" concept as being too confusing. Not that I know why any of that info was placed in the article (except, perhaps, to pad it out).
In the mean time, anybody contesting numbers and charts that are anti-Apple, is a fanboy.
The figures don't surprise me at all, what with the largely uncontested popularity of the iPod; I'm actually surprised that iTunes *hadn't* surpassed RealPlayer till that recently (seriously, who uses RealPlayer these days? Besides testudo, of course).
>> I thought Apple was against the whole "variable pricing" concept as being too confusing.
Apple is; the studios aren't. I mean, you practically live in these boards; you probably read every single article and submit your mostly worthless comments on a half of them, and you still can't figure something as simple as that out?
You need to get out, bro.
In the mean time, anybody contesting numbers and charts that are anti-Apple, is a fanboy.
OK, you tell me Mr Genius, what does the number 35,664 stand for. Or the Realplayer number of 27,565.
Please pass on your wisdom, for, as I said, it's just a chart with various numbers in it, with no explanation of the numbers.
And you didn't even come close to explaining who did this study and where they get their numbers from.
The figures don't surprise me at all, what with the largely uncontested popularity of the iPod; I'm actually surprised that iTunes *hadn't* surpassed RealPlayer till that recently (seriously, who uses RealPlayer these days? Besides testudo, of course).
Which is one reason to doubt the numbers (besides the fact they are meaningless). Who the hell still uses RealPlayer, and how could it have taken this long for the iTMS to pass it by?
This gets into, then, where do they get their numbers or what segment of the market they're covering, which, I'll say again, no one knows.
Apple is; the studios aren't.
And yet Apple has no problem offering rentals at variable pricing, or even videos at variable pricing, or albums at variable pricing, or even singles at variable pricing (when iTunes Plus cost $1.29 - so some songs cost more then others).
But when the labels say they want variable pricing, it's all too confusing for the customers and Apple's trying to keep things simple.
McD
I also assumed that Real was surpassed years ago. I can't even remember the last time I've seen a Realplayer-enabled site. It also shows how, strategically, Real shot themselves in their own foot with the spyware debacle several years ago (which they never recovered from). It also doesn't help that they make it nearly impossible to find and download their free player (without practically giving your mothers' maiden name).
From strictly a browser plug-in, I bet ALL media plug-ins numbers are down. Flash is eating everyone's lunch, in this regard.
Quicktime and iTunes are married, it's silly to try and separate them.
I also like the idea (mentioned above) of using a single-extension for movie files, and letting use decide which media player plugin we want to use (like .mp3 now).
BBC NPR C-SPAN
All use Real Streams
Thats a huge amount of information and video/audio resources.