No WMA for HP iPod

finelinebob writes "In spite of Paul Thurrott's wishful thinking, Wired is reporting that HP will not support the WMA format in its version of the iPod. From the article, according to HP spokesperson Muffi Ghadial, "'We're not going to be supporting WMA for now ... We picked the service that was the most popular (Apple's iTunes Music Store). We could have chosen another format, but that would have created more confusion for our customers.' He added, 'Most customers don't care about the format they're downloading.'" Thurrott's singing a different tune lately, anyway...."

Comments

Nice for Microsoft

[AkaXakA]

I guess that either Apple doesn't actually wants wma on iPod themselves (for business/tech reasons) or, they've been forced to by a certain company which have expressed their dislike of the plan. Either way, there isn't all that much music in wma format anyway online, except other than the iTMS rivals stores...(!)

AAC vs WMA

[Azadre]

I am not meaning to sound redundant, but isn't AAC an actual standard while WMA is propietary to XP? Why is WMA more popular by Windows users if AAC can do the same drm wise and in a majority of cases sounds better?

Easily confused

[JThundley]

I'm glad they aren't including wma. The more you ignore it, the more it'll die. Ogg support would be nice, but I guess that won't happen.

We could have chosen another format, but that would have created more confusion for our customers.
So I guess that proves that Apple's customers are confused easily :)

No Reason for WMA in iPod

[Dark Paladin]

I never saw the logic in the iPod having WMA support. Maybe in the future if the market changes, but not now.

Right now, Apple enjoys a 70% market dominance in the online music sales market - and they have significant brand name and mindshare, which isn't going anywhere soon. Walk up to a standard non-geek person:

Question: What MP3 player works with the Apple Music store? (I know it's called the iTunes store, but who actually says that?)

Answer: iPod.

Question: What MP3 player works with Napster?

Answer: Ummmm....

A geek might know the answer, but most people do not.

So, based on that, Apple's move to have HP license the AAC+Freeplay system is a good move - it encourages the use of the protected AAC files, and Apple gets a cut of that licensing technology, whether through direct iPod sales, or through the purchase of "iPod compatible" devices.

Apple has a 5% market share because they didn't license their operating system - which is fine with them, they make money off of hardware. But licensing "iPod compatible" devices is a way to make money off of every MP3 player sold eventually. If you want to use the iTunes Music Store, and you sell MP3 players, you can either compete against the "de facto standard", or play with it.

If Apple added WMA support, perhaps that would in the short term increase iPod sales since it would work with all the music stores - but in the long term, that's bad for Apple, because then anybody who wanted to switch MP3 players would just pick any WMA compatible device.

Apple can't break into that desktop market at this time - but if they play the cards right, they could become, as Steve Jobs said, the "Microsoft of the online music world". Once that happens, maybe they'll sell more desktops, maybe not - but it would be interesting to see how much money Apple would make from "iPod compatible" devices as opposed to just computer sales alone.

If that became the case, then other online music stores would have to support the AAC+Freeplay "de facto standard" - which means that for every song sold online, Apple would get a cut for the licensing.

So what makes more money: WMA in iPod for short term sales, or take a gamble at getting the whole damned pie?

Eh - just my thoughts. I could be wrong.

Re:Would they consider ogg vorbis and or flac?

[molafson]

The answer to this question, time and time again that it is posed on Slashdot, is a resounding "No." It makes no sense economically for Apple to support those formats, despite whatever you hardcore Ogg Vorbis fans believe, despite that you've encoded your 1200 cds to Vorbis, etc. etc.

Rio Karma plays Vorbis and FLAC, so if you want those formats, support that player (and quit whining about iPod).

Re:Less support for WMA the better

[radish]

I'm so tired of the Linux operating system. It's like a god damned virus. Just the other day I was explaining the concept of a USB webcam to someone I know and when he showed me his PC, it was running Linux. Now of course it's easily converted, but that's one extra thing I'll have to show him how to do. Windows is the standard, nothing else should be supported, if only for clarity and simplicity reasons!

Understand this: Monopolies suck. Monocultures suck.