Is the tide turning?
Ever since competitors to the iTunes Music Store began to pop up, they’ve all insisted that their stores are better… but they don’t support the iPod. They’ve all steered people to other music players, making claims through clenched teeth that if iPod doesn’t play Windows Media Format then it’s a poor player indeed.
Well, RealNetworks has taken the plunge, creating a new format that purports to work with iPod:
According to an article in the New York Times, RealNetworks will debut a technology dubbed “Harmony” tomorrow which mimics the licensing rules of FairPlay, and provides compatibility with the iPod. After attempts by Ron Glaser, CEO of RealNetworks, to contact Steve Jobs to license FairPlay went ignored, Real moved ahead with development of Harmony through reverse engineering. Planning to incorporate the technology into its Rhapsody online music distribution system, Real also admits they have plans to license the technology to other companies, which could open the door for others to provide iPod compatability.
I’m interested in seeing what happens here. The fact that multiple services support the iPod could only be good for iPod sales, right? (Assuming that Apple could actually get the things built and shipped, of course.) But Apple is notoriously secretive – if the technology of “Harmony” is not sanctioned by Apple, they can simply disable it in the next software update.
Waiting with bated breath to see what the next move is…
Of course, Apple has likewise been reluctant to license the ACC format so other stores could provide material in Apple’s own format….