Apple being sued because iTunes and iPod doesn't support WMA?!

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http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/04/apple-sued-over-supposed-itunes-monopoly-being-mean-to-microsof/

 

Hmm, Microsoft also is monopolizing by not including VB and Macro support in the new Mac version of Office. They want to make certain that Macs stay out of the business world and basically forcing people to buy the Windows version.

Also Apple is in no way obligated to support WMA files. Ask MS why the Zune doesn't work on the Mac? Apple's not stopping them.

 

Heh heh...

 

People are starting to find stupid ways of making dough.

 

Yeah, it won't go through though. The lawsuit has no grounds.

Apple is not legally allowed to enable WMA on the ipod. They have to pay MS $$$$$$ to do so.

It's somewhat similar (this was actually a comment made by a digger) who said something like "It's like suing Sony because the PS3 doesn't play 360 games".

iPod has the lion share of the MP3 market because Apple had vision with making it. There really wasn't much out there to compete with the iPod, so the only choice for a quality, well made unit was to buy an iPod. Now, it may not be the best, but people still see it as the benchmark.

And dang, you have to say, whenever a company has their product being used as the defacto name for something (mp3 players universally called iPods by the non techies) is pretty big thing. I'm relating this of course to something like how Xerox became a verb for copying docs and googling for doing an internet search.

 

As much as i dont like Apple, they have all right to not support WMA...

 

I think that if Mac support WMA will be better, but apple does not have to do that.
Also I wonder why itune does not support the video that you download from internet, probably legal issues.

 

Huh? As long as iTunes supports the codec it can play it.

Most other videos can be played through QT.

 

The only thing that keeps me from getting an iPod is that it can't play APE files. (Or ogg, mpc and flac files, for that matter) What do you think are the chances that Apple implement support for such formats? Why haven't they already?

 

I was about to post the same thing. I don't often find myself defending Apple, but this lawsuit really is ridiculous.

 

Near 0. Limiting formats to mp3 and aac means money from iTunes.

 

iTunes already supports all the popular formats, WMA is really only used with Window Media player, which few people use as a music player.

Apple doesn't implement them, 1, because they would have to pay Microsoft for the "technology", and 2, as mentioned, the format is not popular at all.

not to mention, iTunes will convert WMA files to something else already will it not????

this lawsuit is a complete waste of effort, whoever brought it up should definitely be fired, and never hired again.

 

was this suit brought up by microsoft?!? i don't understand why their own legal team would do something like that?

or is this just some random pissed off person...

 

Some random lawyer out of Cali.

 

Cause not many care about those formats. They are not popular at all. I think they would also see it as a waste of effort. I don't agree with Lithus that it would hurt iTunes income. It has nothing at all to do with income from iTunes.

Chef, I think that the lawsuit was brought on by a random person. It was not brought on my MS.

 

Well, ogg and ape aren't that unpopular. Besides, how much extra effort would it require to get iTunes/iPod to play those files?

I don't understand either why allowing for APE should hurt iTunes sales.

 

They would have to re-engineer the iPod. From what I understand, the codec is actually on a chip, its not software based (unless it is firmware based, but since no one seems to have ever hacked it to play WMA, I think it's not really firmware) they would have to completely change out that chip and perhaps change other parts. This would cost a lot of money in R&D. And for what? support a few formats that only make up probably 5% of the total digital music market?

 

You're over-dramatizing things here; the question is not whether one can run Amiga programs on a C64.

The makers of the opensource Rockbox firmware claim that however buggy, they can get iPods to play APE or ogg or even WMA. (see: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SoundCodecs#Current_status)

The project seems to be on a very primitive stage still; but it looks very promising.

edit: Heck, they even have SID and MIDI support!

 

Perhaps those are popular in our world, but the vast majority of iPod users have no clue what those are. In fact, most probably have no clue that iTunes is importing their CDs in AAC and not MP3.

Most people don't know and don't care to know. So the R&D would not be wisely spent on what 1% of the market wants. If there is one thing Apple is very good at, it is figuring out the features that the masses really want. The reason the iPod can dominate without so many features is because it is very easy to use and has great integration with iTunes. Same with iPhone. It is missing some basic features, but still is selling very well because it is actual able to use its features.

 

so. verizon has my made razr un-capable of connecting to a lot of bluetooth devices, but you dont see me sueing them for it. and apple could always just sue M$ for pwning them in the computer market.

 

The biggest joke in the 2008. As any smart investor will tell you, AAPL vs MSFT... theres no contest.

As for the suit... yes, it's quite retarded. While most people do not know this, after having worked in a law firm for a while as a Paralegal, yes there are infact brainless and retarded lawyers everywhere.