Posted on 01/13/2006 6:40:39 AM PST by Panerai
Microsoft says it is no longer developing a Mac version of its Windows Media Player for Mac, following the announcement of a separate five-year agreement with Apple to develop Office for the Mac and Messenger: "We have no plans to provide future updates or product support for Windows Media Player for Mac," Adam Anderson, Microsoft public relations manager, told CNET News.com. Microsoft said that it had a made a "business decision" to halt development and product support because it was re-examining its business priorities: "Our focus really is in delivering the best experience to Windows customers." Ironically, the announced followed its public "commitment" agreement to the Mac, but follows an agreement to distribute Telestream's Windows Media Components for QuickTime.
The free components provide playback of non-protected content within QuickTime, supporting Windows Media 9 and high-definition content; however, it does not support content protected with Windows Media DRM. The components require Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, however, the company will continue to provide the current version of Windows Media Player for Mac via the Web, which runs on Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later.
The report notes that Microsoft has not released a significant update to its media player, since Windows Media Player 9 was released in November of 2003.
Your non sequitur frightens and confuses me.
Mac is positioned to do real damage to Micro$oft.
Mac is BSD based, thus loved by geeks.
Mac is relatively trouble free, thus loved by novices.
Mac OS X will run on Intel, and they've made the "protection" easy to break so you can run it on non-mac hardware, thus hobbyists will join the fray, and drivers will come faster than Apple could do by themselves.
Don't forget the anybody but Micro$oft crowd.
If Micro$oft pushes ahead with their plans to sell software on a subscription only basis... well, Bill will have less cash to donate.
The article says they will do a plug-in, so my guess is a wmv/wma plugin for Quicktime so that MS still has a media presence on the Mac, at least in their formats.
Windows made WMPlayer for Mac? Really? I guess I never had a use for it. Gee.
I’ll stick with the 3rd party product ... Flip4Mac
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