Windows Media Player Looks to iTunes for iNspiration


Microsoft's new Windows Media Player 9 sports a number of familiar technologies - some of which users will already be familiar with: on iTunes 3.0.

c|net news reports that
WMP goes public beta on September 4 and incorporates Pressplay, the result of a deal with Sony and Vivendi, which provides users with on-line music services.

However, WMP 9 has clearly taken iTunes for a few trips around the block while looking for inspiration. WMP's Auto Playlists bears a striking resemblance to iTunes' SmartPlaylist. However, MS provides 14 presets versus iTunes' four.

Cross fades (originally added to iTunes 2.0 for OS 9 and X) and normalization of volume for all tracks, now a standard feature of iTunes 3.0, and also supported by MusicMatch, the software chosen by Apple to support the iPod on Windows machines.

WMP does support skins, in the way SoundJam MP did/does (most of SoundJam's technology was incorporated into iTunes when SoundJam's chief developer went to work for Apple).

WMP 9, however, eschews the universal MP3 format, opting for WMP's own standard, which offers three levels of fidelity and compression. WMP can rip tracks to MP3, but it will require third-party plug-ins to do so.

Analysis: With WMP 9, Microsoft is making it clear once more that it is not prepared to accept standards which were not invented in Redmond. That means consumers using WMP are weaned off MP3 and even DVD video format, if they don't get a software decoder to play DVDs. MS also wants to give as little oxygen to MPEG generally (and MPEG-4 in particular), as these are part and parcel of Apple's QuickTime. The same applies to MS's reliance upon a much older version of Sun's Java, which it persists in using. As with DVD-R and +RW, competing standards can often mean wasted company resources. With MS, unfortunately, it's too often an underdeveloped or inferior product which is marketed into a 'standard'.