Has Apple’s successful implementation of digital
rights management (DRM) technology in the iTunes storefront forced Microsoft
into a digital media strategy shift?
After making a point that advanced features within the Windows Media 9
Series digital media platform would only be available on its flagship
Windows platform, Microsoft did a sudden about-turn this
week, announcing that a new version of the Windows Media Player (WMP) for
the Mac OS X would be released in the fall.
While a version of WMP has always been available for Mac users, DRM
WMP for Mac OS X will support full playback of WM9 Series encoded content,
including Windows Media DRM versions 7.x through 9.
Jason Reindorp, group manager at Microsoft’s digital media division would
neither confirm or deny the availability of the DRM versions 7.x features in
the coming Mac player but company sources say the plans for a new media
player is “centered entirely around our new DRM.”
Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox, co-publisher of the Microsoft Monitor weblog,
believes Microsoft embrace of the Mac is directly linked to Apple’s
emergence as a legitimate DRM competitor.
“That Microsoft would develop a version of Windows Media Player 9 Series
for the Mac is quite the big deal and major turnabout from an earlier
product strategy…With the iTunes Music Store, Apple has emerged as a DRM
competitor to Microsoft — and a pretty good one at that. Pretty good
because Apple’s DRM applies the same usage rights to all songs, a publishing
model that differs greatly from most Windows music services,” Wilcox
noted.
“Windows Media Player 9 Series for the Mac is a big deal. The player’s
availability could open up quite a bit of digital content that currently is
locked to Mac users; that would mean DRM-protected content on CDs and DVDs,
too,” Wilcox added.Microsoft’s Reindorp denied the strategy shift had anything to do with
Apple’s DRM success. “I think it’s actually the opposite. Our DRM has been
proven and is well liked and well used. As the music industry has been
looking for ways to expand Internet distribution, I think that has put some
pressure on Apple to come up with a solution,” Reindorp said in an interview
with internetnews.com.
He dismissed Apple as a serious rival in the DRM space, arguing that the
“closed system” plays to Microsoft’s advantage. “Apple’s DRM works on a
closed system. You have no option but to use a Mac or an iPod,” Reindorp
said.
Microsoft’s newest Windows Media DRM 9 Series, launched in January this
year, features real-time encryption (Live DRM) to allow for the immediate
protection of live streams. “One of the most recognized strengths of our DRM
is the flexible business rules. We let the content provider assign the usage
rights so it puts the power in the hands of the providers,” he said, in
response to chatter that the flexible nature of the Apple iTunes store was a
huge hit with content providers.
“It’s important to understand we have a well established DRM solution that
works across many different types of devices and services. For example, all
five major music labels use it, as do many of the online video distribution
companies. Apple’s, by contrast, only works in a ‘closed system’ and is
much more basic than a flexible DRM system that can tailor usage rules to
different applications,” he argued.
Steve Vonder Haar, an analyst at Interactive Media
Strategies sees the latest move as simply Microsoft expanding its
already huge digital media footprint.
“The [digital media] platform war is now a three-way battle between
Windows Media 9 Series, RealNetworks’ Helix and the open MPEG-4 standard.
At the end of the day, Microsoft will be there,” Vonder Haar said.
“When it becomes a two-horse race, it’ll be a fight between RealNetworks
and the MPEG-4 crowd to to be the viable alternative. If you’re Microsoft
and you want to make sure that you’re relevant across a broad number of
platforms with Windows Media 9, developing a version for Mac is a way to
take some of the wind out of the MPEG-4 sails,” he argued. Apple’s own
QuickTime player uses MPEG-4.
“This is just a good old fashioned war for the hearts and minds of
developers. if you make WM9 available and viable on the Mac platform, there
will be some percentages of developers who won’t bother with MPEG-4.
Developers can now reach the Apple audience with Microsoft,” Vonder Haar
added.
Jupiter Research’s Wilcox speculated in his weblog
post that the Microsoft about-turn was driven by renewed activity in the
digital music download space. “Now, I’m only speculating here, but: Roxio is
getting ready to relaunch Pressplay as the new Napster. Right now, Pressplay
content is delivered as Windows Media Audio format protected by Microsoft’s
DRM. Now, it’s pretty reasonable to assume Roxio might want to reach the Mac
market with Napster, seeing as how good a job Apple has done making the Mac
an attractive platform for digital music,” Wilcox said.
“I would assume other music distributors depending on Windows Media DRM
might want a crack at that market, too. Granted the Mac’s paltry compared to
Windows, but it’s also a market primed for digital music,” he added.
Microsoft’s Reindorp declined to provide specifics about the features
that will be added in the new WMP for Mac. “The current version is not
optimized for playback of all Windows Media 9 Series content. We will
improve on the quality of playback and compression,” he said.
“We normally released new versions the media player for the Mac after
major updates to our platform. I can’t comment on specific features until we
make a formal announcement.
He disclosed that the fall release of the new player would coincide with
a new embedded player for the Apple Safari browser.
It has been a busy week for Microsoft’s digital media division, which
also submitted the video compression technology in Windows Media 9 to the
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) in a bid to make
it an industry standard.
That move, which surprised industry watchers, could eventually lead to
the WMV 9 codec becoming an international standard and would remove barriers
to adoption, a company spokesman explained.
“It means companies can adopt Windows media without having to contact
Microsoft directly,” the spokesman said, noting that licensing fees would
still be applicable if the codecs are used in set top boxes and other
consumer electronic devices.
Rivals RealNetworks (with Helix) and Apple (with MPEG-4) have already
adopted the open standards route to embrace digital media content
providers.
* Editor’s Note: Jupiter Research and Microsoft Monitor are owned by
Jupitermedia Corp., the parent company of this Web site.
