Wow. I see this whole thing getting really out of hand once Micro$oft gets in the fray. They have a penchant for really f'ing things up.

Woo boy, things are sure gonna heat up and get interesting. Hopefully this backfires on MS. And is the iPod still the only player on the market that supports AAC?

At least we can rest assured that Pearl Jam will always be on itunes

I think with the support that Apple has gained by making everything Windows-friendly will help them a lot in this matter. Now that Windows users have gone and downloaded iTunes, bought iPods, etc, they'll be a little angry when they can't use an iTunes compatible player...

One would think that M$ will be able to weather this storm, though. M$ just has to release a utility for their music player that converts AAC to WMA (legality of which I'm uncertain), and winows users will buy 2nd gen M$ music players instead of 5th gen iPods.

I could be wrong. I also thought M$ would throw so much cash behind the XBox that they'd dominate the console market, but that hasn't happened.

All this brings up a bigger issue: has Apple's refusal to distribute the AAC format hurt them?

iTunes 4.6 on Windows converts WMA to AAC, doesn't it?

Wow...why don't they? I thought Apple was all about open source? Why would it hurt them by distributing it?

I think he meant WMA. Or maybe not, in which case I'm confused.

My take on it is that Apple is all about OTHER people's open source. Ask the Mac clone builders.

Apple has been reluctant to allow other companies to build music players that could compete with the iPod and make websites that could compete with the iTunes music store for iPod owner's dollars.

Then again, I'm often misguided, misinformed, and always misbegotten!

Is there a way they can let other devices play AAC and not create them, or do they go hand and hand?

MS threw lots of money at the Tablet PCs, and look what that's gotten them.

One can at least trust the mp3 format for compatibility. I never bothered with buying my music online anyways. From reading what microsoft intends on doing, I'm glad I haven't. That would REALLY suck if you could only buy something from a certain artist from just one server. With Apple, Microsoft, and Sony all in the fray, that could mean that I'd need 3 mobile players! WTF!!!

CDs are really the best still. Some day AAC will be old and all your music is gone. Give it 3-4 more years.

It's a bit too late Bill. Sorry.

Okay, I'm a little confused... is there a new iPod mini out or not? I don't see anything on the apple store about it. 179 pounds comes out to about 328 dollars... which is roughly the price of the new regular ipod.

the iPod just went up for sale in europe; previously it was only available in the US.

That's the reason I wouldn't worry too much about this. Microsoft doesn't win at everything.

Besides, the music industry is a $45 Billion dollar a year industry. As successful as iTMS is, it's still a minor player in the distribution channel. It took Apple how long to hit $100 million in sales? And how much was profit on that? $100 million vs. $45 Billion is a big difference.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's for the future. But there's no telling what the landscape is going to look like in 5 years. There could be a whole new paradigm shift in how music could be delivered. Until then CD's rule and there doesn't seem to be a real threat near them.

Wasn't Microsoft supposed to take over the gaming world too? Didn't they have to start selling the X-Box at a loss just so people would by them? Anyways I don't give a hoot.

CDs don't last forever.

The vast majority of Microsoft's forays outside of the OS have been failures.

being the behemoth, it must really hurt their egos these days to be missing the bus on many fronts, ipod/itunes is probably the most lucrative one to miss probably also the most fashionable. I guess m$ never had the cool factor to begin with so they might really try really hard here, like they do with xbox. If there really is going to be a m$ attack into this area, I think they may just about go for a marketing plan like giving away free players if you can subscribe to msn for one year or something like that. Apple should really move on to the next level and get hold of radio stations to sell music through itunes. To beat m$ and sony in this game you just have to get more creative besides holding on to what you have.

well, they'll have a longer life-span than AAC files though...

As soon as no more players support AAC your music collection is gone

Not as long as you have iTunes and can burn CDs of your AACs, though.

And once they stop making CD players in favor of something else, all your CDs will be obsolete.

And once all the musicians switch to Esperanto, all of our English language recordings will become obsolete too.

... and of course, when evolve in gigantic-brained bobble heads with no ears and vast psychic powers, their will be no more recorded music.

Hell, I'm getting rid of my CDs and vinyl now. And just think of the room I'm gonna free up on my hd!

Who cares! All I know is I am making bank off of their stock, the divided payout, and come on? How many companies do you know of have enough cash on hand to literally go buy a country? And I am not talking about something small like Luxemberg, I mean something like Sudan or Paraguay.

It seems like all I ever see around town are iPods. They vastly outnumber all other music devices (walkman, cd player, mp3 player) combined. I mean, when half the people on the bus are listening to music and only one isn't doing it on an iPod, you start to wonder who is buying the other stuff. Is anyone else even making a profitable digital music device?

Also, the Betamax slam, that was just harsh. It maybe that if Sony had made Betamax the hip movie player that everyone wanted, we wouldn't even remember VHS. Many people are going to buy what's coolest, and I don't see that being anything coming out of Redmond.

Anyway, selling music online isn't a very lucrative business at the moment. It's selling the hardware that rakes in the profits. If you have the hardware, you can get the music through traditional channels (i.e. CD stores). I really feel the article put too much weight on the music store side of things. If the online music industry really does split up into multiples, people will choose their music player based on function, style, and popularity. I really don't see anyone competing with the iPod there for a while.

Cheers!