Any real examination would note that Mp3 has already won as the consumer format of choice. If there were no AAC or any other choice, would 90% of the market be MP3 or WMA?

MP3 has already won. Nothing WMA can do will change that? Other than people in Redmond, who actually willingly encodes their store bought CD’s in WMA? A very small number.

Notice that the ipod and hundreds of other payers are called MP# PLAYERS not AAC players or WNA players.

MS can open 1,000 stores – but consumers have already chosen.

Even if Apple decides not to sell AAC tunes, the market for WMA will never cross 5% versus Mp3’s.

not quite.

iPod can play WAV, AIFF, MP3 and any AAC files so long as it can play the DRM used.

iTunes has the option to rip to AAC, and that’s what it uses by default now (IIRC). AAC tracks you rip from your CDs don’t have any DRM in place.

What iPod can’t do, is play tracks with Real’s DRM solution.

Real could quite easily release non protected AAC tracks and they would play fine with iPod, but obviously Satan and all his little wizards at the record companies wouldn’t approve of that.

if itunes loses market share, then apple could easily just add wma support to the ipod.

it would not be harmful to apple at all to license its DRM. unless the other music services botched the ease of use factor. but remember, DRM is not an OS, it’s just a part of the ipod. ipod already works on windows and mac, and on the most popular music downloading services. all the services are the same, they all provide the same music for the same price. the only different services are subscription ones, which don’t apply as of now.

Glaser will have none of this — that’s why he’s using AAC. But Real has a pathetic product and corporate image, not to mention being unfriendly towards consumers in general, including Apple users. Real is not worth partnering with. In fact, if Real goes under, we’ll see more sites with windows media AND QuickTime instead of Real. Now that would be of some benefit to Apple users. But I expect Gates will throw Glaser a lifeline (cash) because he’d rather not have that happen. Cash-strapped Glaser will take it, return to his office and throw up in the rest room. Then he’ll rationalize it by buying a property in the Hamptons.

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

The only thing opening up to real would do is complicate the experience for the user. What happens when you sync on Realplayer and iTunes with the same device? Will it duplicate the songs? Now you have your library split between two desktop apps, which sucks. Nobody wants that. Consumers like the appliance-like function of iTunes + iPod. Plug it in and it works. No drive mounting, no PC-like wizards, no dialog boxes asking you questions you don’t know the answer to, or anything else that people hate about using their computers (particularly PCs). Adding Realplayer sync would break all of that.

So long as Apple can offer the same library as everyone else, continue to provide a superior or competitive store interface and search function and compete on price, there is no reason to fear. Since prices are more a function of the Labels, I don’t see that being much of a differentiator. The the most popular store wields the most power of negotiation for exclusives, which continues to be iTunes.

iTunes has little to fear.

Hopefully, Real will just go away. That would probably be best for everyone, and then we won’t be subjected to Real’s bad video at low speed delivery system.

Sure this would give another distributer for the iPod but Apple can’t keep up with sales today (before the HP deal goes through).

It would seem to make more sense to license FairPlay to other hardware vendors who do not directly compete with the iPod (flash memory player, DVD players, TiVo, etc…). This would increase the perceived value of iTMS songs without compromising Apple’s position.