HP Denies Claims it Will Bring WMA to iPod
By David Worthington and Nate Mook, BetaNews
January 13th, 2004, 7:06 PM
Hewlett-Packard has denied claims published in Paul Thurrott's WinInfo newsletter alleging that it intends to extend support of Microsoft's WMA audio format to the iPod portable music player.
HP recently stunned the IT world and announced this month at the at the Consumer Electronics Show its partnership with Apple to license iPod technology for HP branded products.
Contrary to Thurrott's report, HP does not have current plans to break out of the boundaries established by Apple's iTunes, which supports only MP3 and Apple's AAC audio formats. As part of the agreement forged between the two parties, iTunes software will ship preinstalled on new HP consumer PCs and notebooks.
"We're not going to be supporting WMA for now," Muffi Ghadiali, product marketing manager for HP's digital entertainment products group, said in a statement. "We picked the service that was the most popular (Apple's iTunes Music Store). We could have chosen another format, but that would have created more confusion for our customers."
According to its own figures, Apple's iTunes music store currently comprises 70 percent of all music sold online. In addition, over 2 million iPods have been sold since its introduction. Both iTunes and the iPod have been the focus of considerable attention from Apple; America Online recently integrated member screen names to provide one-click access to iTunes, and Apple is preparing to ship the new iPod mini in an assortment of colors.
"We explored a range of alternatives to deliver a great digital music experience and concluded Apple's iPod music player and iTunes music service were the best by far," said Carly Fiorina, HP's chairman and CEO. But senior Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox points to possible problems with supporting only one format.
"For the next six months, HP customers have access to MusicMatch and its music store. Songs bought there, in WMA, won't play in iTunes or on iPod," said Wilcox. "In a few months, when HP starts to consider the customer problems associated with two non-compatible formats -- WMA and FairPlay AAC -- things might look different to the company."
Apple faces a steady flood of competition from rivals including Napster, MusicMatch, Real Networks, MSN, and even Wal-Mart who are eager to chip away at iTunes' early lead.
Not surprisingly, Apple has stuck with its proprietary form of the AAC audio codec coupled with its own rights management technology, dubbed FairPlay. Initially, AAC was authored by a consortium of firms interested in developing a new industry-wide standard. Many of Apple's competitors utilize the WMA format -- also proprietary -- for the distribution of media.
Microsoft has submitted its Windows Media 9 video specs to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) for review, but has thus far kept WMA off limits to the world outside of Redmond.
