Check it out:

http://winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/41423/41423.html

"Exclusive: HP Working to Get WMA on iPod
HP's blockbuster deal with Apple will have one exciting side effect, I discovered today. The company will be working with Apple to add support for Microsoft's superior Windows Media Audio (WMA) format to the iPod by mid-year. You heard it here first."

Thurrott's site is the closest thing (that I know of) that the Windows world has to a Mac style "rumor site", but he's been around a long time and is pretty respectable. Although I prefer AAC to WMA, you have to admit the WMA support on the iPod would open up a LOT of options for iPod owners to purchase music.

superior?

I'll believe it when I see it. Also many WMA hardware devices currently for sale or already out there can't play WMA Pro or WMA Lossless encoded files.

Why go proprietary when you can go with something like M4A/MP4 which is an international standard? Who knows when Microsoft will impose licensing fees or change the WMA codecs again? I will stick with an open, defined standard thanks...

Also Microsoft's Windows Media Player for Mac is a joke in my opinion and is not updated like the Windows version. I doubt Mac users will want to go WMA.

I think it's inevitable if Apple wants to maintain dominance of the mp3 player market. The world's most popular player doesn't support the majority of music services? That situation can't go on forever. Although AAC may be better than WMA by hydrogenaudio standards, that doesn't mean squat when the song you are looking for is only in WMA.

The Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, has expressed that they have no interest in supporting other music stores since they are "the Microsoft of music stores." Maybe HP succeeds in having Apple add WMA support to the iPod and iTunes. Even though it makes it easier for Windows users to switch to iTunes/iPod, it adds support for an audio format which cannot be created on a mac, and which Apple has no control over.

Yes, they are dominant with AAC.

Why would Apple bother with WMA which is installed on more players than there are iPod models and still they get 70% of the music market.

One thing that Apple must do is support the DRM of Real's Helix so that iPod owners would have the choice of buying AAC from iTunes (128Kbps) or Real (192Kbps).

Real offers a new opportunity for Apple to sell it's iPods, they shouldn't let that pass.

Because Apple makes money on the player, not the songs - so anything that makes the player more attractive to consumers is a good thing.

Like I said before, I *prefer* AAC - however, I've been around long enough to know that it is not wise to become too attached to any one format. If my $300 iPod suddenly gets support for the competing format, I get some peace of mind that I won't be holding a $300 paperweight a year from now.

What type off AAC does the Ipod support? What bit rate is equivalent in quality to LAME APS?

(Just started thinking about buying an iPod mini this morning....

Thanks,
Fairy

interesting

m$ seems to have such a strong position already that even their biggest competitor implements wma...

altough i only believe it when its here

and afaik the most successfull commercial internet selling platform is itunes, using aac...

"Who Cares"

Because HP is paying them for the favor of being allowed to distribute their own variant of the ipod. If HP wants WMA capabilities so that their ipod is Napster compatible, I doubt that Apple will mind.
Presumably the HP version will be in other ways distinct from the Apple ipod. Hopefully it's cheaper.

Well HP will be providing iTunes with their iPods, so I don't see where they'll get WMA support. WMP doesn't support the iPod AFAIK. EphPod doesn't handle WMA transfer since it does not exist. Maybe MusicMatch but I doubt it.

That would mean that if the HP iPod should support it, it would be that Apple makes a firmware that does WMA and they put out iTunes with WMA functions. That would mean WMA for all (including Apple's) or for nobody.

WMA support would mean more iPod could be sold, but it would (in?)definitely hurt AAC and Apple is a strong supporter of AAC and not WMA.

And that would also hurt the little revenue they get from the iTMS.

Maybe they'll wait the first year of iTMS and the 100 million song sold before doing WMA?

It's pretty well known that Apple is not making money off of the sales of songs in iTMS, but rather on the player sales themselves.
Providing the capacity to transfer WMA files to the iPod in iTunes seems like a trivial task if you've done the firmware, which is what HP appears to be pushing for. Allowing iTunes to play WMA's is not the same as providing the function to compress to WMA or to purchase music off of napster, et al in the iTunes program.

HP may be able to offer Apple sufficient volume of player sales to make it worth their while, and packaging an "HPod" along with your HP Pavilion should bring total costs down and add value for the consumer in a day when HP is having trouble differentiating themselves from everyone else (although they often use high quality Asus boards).
I believe HP is anxious about Dell's entry into the portable music market and has more invested in "your digital lifestyle"

All kinds, except HE-AAC.
Of course, all files must be in .mp4 or .m4a extentions/containers.

The bitrate at which AAC should be equal to -aps is 160.

Actually, only one kind: LC AAC

It doesn't support LTP, Main, SSR, LD, etc.

It seems they're looking to support every format but Ogg Vorbis. Dare they support something not used to prevent people from using the files(DRM).

For me, it doesn't make a difference. I don't have an iPod, nor do I plan on buying one or have it on a wish list, due to the overpricing of it. My Rio Karma suits me well.

I heard iTunes hit 500,000 songs. Isn't that as much as napster? So dosen't that make Napster and iTunes the largest Legal online downloadable music service? I believe just about every song that you see on napster is also on iTunes. So I doubt you will find a song that is "only" in WMA.

I think drm is the reason why hp wants add support for wma

From the hp press release



It's not a feature, it's a bug.

I don't think that's it - AAC already has DRM. Heck, you could even add DRM to Ogg Vorbis if you wanted to, using a DRM wrapper like Real 10's.

Well... The answer is NO!

HP won't support WMA as can be read on Wired.

Ah, great news!

One step closser to another M$ monopoly. This is bad news :-(

If only Apple would let ppl add support for more codecs themselves. I personally would MUCH rather see MPC support on the iPod.

seems you missed FrDakota's last post

Well, at least Paul Thurrot's WinInfo newsletter succeeded in producing superior BS rumors, if not anything else superior...

I concur

Another ignorant sentence by Paul Thurrot on WinInfo newsletter :
"but RealNetworks uses yet another completely incompatible AAC version for its music store"

The guy doesn't understand what is the difference between "DRM & container" and "AAC encoding".
I´d like him to tell Coding Technologies that their AAC version if completely incompatible..

Well, but it's winnetmag, can't really expect any accurate info in any case..

well surely real can be blamed for not using the mp4 container imo

to be 100% compliant you also have to use the standard container, only using aac is not enough for real compliancy noticable for the user (btw the same goes for mpeg-4 video imho)