“Rob Glaser has made his peace with Microsoft’s Bill Gates. Now, the RealNetworks chief executive is turning up the rhetoric against another technology icon: Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs,” Greg Sandoval reports for CNET News. “At the Digital Living Conference here on Monday, Glaser told a packed hotel ballroom that Jobs & Co.’s refusal to make the iPod compatible with music services other than Apple’s iTunes was ‘pig-headedness.’ …These are heady times for Glaser and his Internet multimedia company, which announced in October that it had reached a favorable settlement with Microsoft on the $1 billion lawsuit RealNetworks filed in 2003. Under the deal, Microsoft agreed to pay $460 million in cash to settle the antitrust claims and will also pay $301 million to support RealNetworks’ music and game efforts.”
“‘We think Apple Computer, and Steve personally, are making a mistake by making the software proprietary,’ Glaser said, noting that RealNetworks would continue catering to users of Macintosh computers,” Sandoval reports. “‘There’s no reason we should penalize Apple customers for Steve’s pigheadeness.'” …Glaser called for the music industry to pressure Jobs into opening up the iPod to other online music vendors. ‘Steve makes for a good pinata because he’s taken a position against interoperability,’ Glaser said. These people ‘should be pressuring him to change because they have leverage over him. Apple being on its own in term of interoperability makes piracy more compelling for consumers. Because, hey, if I take all my MP3s from this illegal site or that illegal site, they’ll work on the iPod or anything else. Whereas if I buy them legitimately, they’ll only work at one place.'” Glaser said that consumers could blame Apple if they can’t hook up their music with their other digital content should such convergence become popular.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: To the porcine Rob Glaser, the irony of calling Steve Jobs “pigheaded” seems lost. At least Glaser’s always good for a laugh; at, not with. Glaser talks “interoperability,” but his service offers nothing to Mac users outside of streaming a handful of “free” songs buffering endlessly and trapped within a web browser. Apple’s iTunes is free for both Mac and Windows. Apple iPods work with both Mac and Windows. No other legal online music service is more “interoperable” than Apple’s; certainly not RealNetworks’ limited online outfit with its “Harmony” hack that has failed at least once in the past, not that anybody noticed until over a month and a half later. Rob Glaser is not even a footnote in the historical arenas that Steve Jobs headlines. Glaser’s trough has been filled recently by Microsoft; his confidence temporarily restored by the slop, it seems. Let’s wait see what he’ll oink when he quickly empties it once again. Glaser should resume his concentration on shoveling in the Krispy Kreme’s, which would prevent him from spewing out his nonsense. That’ll also help make his inevitable steamrolling at the hands of Apple’s Jobs all the more spectacular.
On October 27th, RealNetworks announced their earnings results for the quarter ended September 30, 2005. Real reported revenue of $82.2 million and net income of $11.2 million. Real’s music revenue totaled $25.0 million for the quarter.
On October 11th, Apple announced their earnings results for the quarter ended September 24, 2005. Apple reported revenue of $3.68 billion and net income of $430 million. Apple’s music revenue totaled $1.477 billion for the quarter.
In the last quarter, Apple matched Real’s entire quarterly revenue of $82.2 million in about the first 49 hours of the quarter. In the last quarter, Apple matched Real’s total quarterly net income of $11.2 million before enjoying a nice low-cal Vegan lunch on the 3rd day of the quarter. In the last quarter, Apple matched Real’s music revenue of $25 million right around the 36th hour of the quarter.
Related articles:
Real makes Rhapsody web-based, opens limited service to Mac users – December 05, 2005
Real’s Glaser: Apple iPod+iTunes ‘will lose out because of the share of market forces against them’ – October 29, 2005
Apple’s ‘pure genius’ will soon make iTunes’ portal the ‘number one destination on the Internet’ – July 26, 2005
Real CEO Glaser calls Apple ‘deceptive’ with iTunes Music Store – March 07, 2005
Real CEO pitches to half empty room at tech symposium; Apple draws standing-room-only crowd – February 25, 2005
RealNetworks’ CEO Rob Glaser grabs 3 of top 10 spots on ‘Dumbest Moments in Business 2005’ list – January 31, 2005
The de facto standard for legal digital online music files: Apple’s protected MPEG-4 Audio (.m4p) – December 15, 2004
RealNetworks ‘Harmony’ stops working on iPods but nobody notices for a month and a half – December 15, 2004
Real’s CEO Glaser: ‘Harmony’ hack legal, Mac lovers are very sensitive to Apple criticism, and more – September 14, 2004
Analyst: Rob Glaser’s ill-advised war against Apple ‘is going to bite RealNetworks on the ass’ – August 30, 2004
RealNetwork’s CEO Glaser crashes Apple’s music party – July 30, 2004
Real CEO Glaser: Steve Jobs’ comments on Real ‘not succeeding’ are ‘ridiculously humorous’ – April 29, 2004
NY Times: Real CEO Glaser was close to having ‘iPod’ before Apple, but let it ‘slip through his fingers – April 24, 2004
Real’s CEO Glaser: Apple’s iPod/iTunes combo ‘threatens to turn off consumers’ – April 20, 2004
Jobs to Glaser: go pound sand – April 16, 2004
Real CEO Glaser begs Apple to make iPod play nice with other music services – March 24, 2004
Real CEO Glaser: ‘iTunes is only going to be used for playing songs you bought using the iTunes store – January 16, 2004
…MDN: it is obvious someone photoshopped that picture and no respected commentator or reporter would mention a subject’s weight in their piece. So grow up sometime.
as to Real, it is not Apple’s deal to make its competitors life easier. No one is going to pressure Apple until someone offers up something that is cheaper or better than what Apple offers. It is as simple as that.
Apple holds the advantage now and how long they want to keep things tight is a balancing act. Right now, other than whining, there is no market pressure to do so, so why give up $$?
My understanding is that Apple doesn’t make much profit at all from the iTMS with the $.99 price; it’s sort of like, buy my mp3 player and get all of these songs at a discount.
What Glaser is proposing would be similar to me walking into a bank lobby, pointing at their sign that said free gas grill with every new account, and demanding one since I just opened an account with the bank across the street! Or trying to validate a KFC coupon at a Wendy’s.
He may have a point when he states that “consumers may blame Apple if they can’t hook up their music with their other digital content should such convergence become popular.” These consumers, all twelve or fifteen of them, may then be quite angry! But it also assumes that every other player and service will cooperate as well. If they do, it will be out of pure desperation, a last gasp before the succumb to the iPod and iTMS.
Oh, and I also agree with caddisfly. Mentioning the irony of him calling Jobs that name is okay. The donuts and slop comments were cheap shots and over the line. Geez, and you guys wonder why they call you fanatics???
Those poor donuts are about to get “Glased”
Jobs? Pigheaded? Absolutely, and thank God he is. It is his pigheaded refusal to compromise on the quality of software and hardware that make OS X, the Mac, and the iPod what they are. Not to mention the iApps, Final Cut Pro etc. It is his pigheaded insistence on the priority of the story that made all of Pixar’s films smash hits. He is pigheaded, but he’s not blindly so. Thank God for pigheaded people and their determination to stick to a vision in the face of naysayers. In this case I’d take it as a compliment, so everyone should stop hyperventilating over Glaser’s remarks.
MW: “stand”, as in everybody should take one for what they believe in. How the hell does MDN do it?
When preparing for his role in Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” Benicio del Toro purposefully put on forty pounds for the role. He says in the DVD’s commentary track, “It’s not hard to do. If you eat 18 donuts a day, you will gain weight.”
I always think of that for some reason whenever MDN does a take about RealNetworks.
“If Apple open their DRM the first thing that’ll happen it every music store will try to modify it slightly so it becomes incompatible with each other.”
How true! If the other music “stores” (actually they’re music “rent-a-centers”) were concerned about interoperability they wouldn’t be renting their music.
Licensing the FairPlay DRM at this point would not be a good thing.
And for the “pig-headed” comment, well, that is just bad form by Glaser. Does he spend his time inbetween donuts on the playground with 2nd graders?
MW: “now” as in “Open you DRM now, Steve Jobs, or I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll still be irrelevant.
He should seriously consider salads.
From that picture I think Rob is the pig head, OINK!,OINK!
Real Networks support for Mac (and Linux) is laughable compared to their Windows offerings! To say that FairPlay is proprietary and PlaysForSure is not, is just plain silly at best! Just because Microsoft licenses out their technology to 3rd parties doesn’t magically make it non-proprietary!
FairPlay is cross-platform, PlaysForSure is not, end of story!!!
r those krispy kreams?
he can’t be all bad…
MDN word water …
as in drink more, eat less
Earlier this year I began uploading my audio sermons in m4a format and have them linked as Podcasts through iTunes (Podcasts:”RevNeal’s Sermon Podcasts”)as well as stand-alone download access on my website (http://www.RevNeal.org). Nevertheless, I STILL have nearly 5 years of Audio Sermons formatted for streaming play in RealPlayer format on my website, and I still upload a copy of each new sermon every week in Real Player format (the files are tiny in comparison to those I upload in m4a) hence the usability of Real Player is a real issue for me. True, there’s not much music content on the internet for Macs in Real Player, but Real Player STILL works MUCH better than Windows Media Player on Macs for most streaming content that one wants to access on the internet; AND, it is still the most widely used (internationally speaking) method for streaming media on the planet. It is also backwards-compatible to much older computers and, if encoded correctly, streams well even for those poor souls still plagued with having only dial-up access.
Thank God there’s a codec for conversion to .rm in Quicktime … that made my life a lot easier. Real has NEVER updated their RealProducer to operate in OSX … up until the release of the Quicktime Codec for conversion to .rm I had to boot up Classic to run RealProducer. It had become the ONLY reason why I ever used Classic, and I was getting very tired of it.
As for the whole spat for DRMs and such … WHY should Apple change? They OWN the market.
Here’s a rare photo of Rob on vacation:
That pic w/ Glacier and the donuts cracked me up big time!
I couldn’t stop laughing for 10 seconds. And MacJack’s line was frickin’ funny, too!
You guys have great sense of humor.
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RevNeal:
I have NEVER been able to get RealPlayer to work properly on my Mac. Assuming anyone can even find the free player on Real’s site, and assuming you can slog through everything that Real is shilling to get to it, and despite numerous attempts at installation, all I ever see when I click on a RealMedia formatted file is a message telling me I do not have the appropriate plug-in. RealPlayer is the ONLY piece of crap software that I have never been able to get to work properly in OS X, and I have been a Mac user for about eleven years.
Hemorrhoid Rage,
Sounds horrible. Ever since the release of OSX.4 I have not been able to get Windows Media Player to either load or play. The installer crashes. This is true on my desk top AND on my laptop. I don’t know why, and while I don’t much care there are, occasionally, news broadcasts on CNN I’d like to watch which I can’t because I don’t have a functional Windows Media Player.
As for Real Player … I’ve given directions on my site for people to find the free player. It’s not hard at all (2 clicks and fill out the download form and you’re there) And, as for playing my files … they’re simply encoded for 28.8 so ANYONE can download/stream them even at dial up. I’ve had no one (be they Mac or Windows or whatever OS) tell me that there’s been any problem, and since I don’t have any special sound or video features with the sermon files they don’t require special plug-ins other than the one that comes with Real Player. I’ve been doing this for almost 6 years, now … it works.
i’m a little piggy, here’s my snout
oink oink oink
oink oink oink
i love the numbers in MDN’s take: “Apple matched Real’s entire quarterly revenue of $82.2 million in about the first 49 hours of the quarter.”
that in itself says a lot.
I’m a Mac/iPod lover. I also love this site. I say this because I care.
MDN:
I think your commentary here is a new low.
It is clear that you have a valid point, one that you have enthusiastically and repeatedly shared with this sites visitors, who are predominantly Mac users.
Even if one considers all the arguments about this site being listed among Tech news sites…etc., that would be more of a reason to be BOTH cogent and respectful in your commentary.
I just cannot see anyone reading this commentary and switching to an iPod or a Mac, they would probably be repelled by this sort of abuse.
“porcine”, a photoshoped picture… What is next?
If MDN’s goals are to attract people to Macs and iPods, or defend them and clarify the misinformation that exists out there, then these misinformed people are probably better served by redirecting them to other sites.
Please tone down the abuse.
Apple should just BUY Realnetworks and appoint Rob as pastry chef at the cafe’.
okay mdn
you owe me a new keyboard and theater display…!!!
ha
your take had me spewing coffee everywhere from laughter
that was an epic combo of word and image…the glased donuts?
priceless
the subliminal animal farm analogy
brilliant
Rob “Napoleon” Glaser: “All CEOs are equal, but some are more equal than others! Take that, Snowball Steve!”
Rob Glaser’s reason for living for the last few years was not donuts. It was to win the Microsoft lawsuit.
The only way Apple will open up iTunes DRM is if Microsoft prevents iTunes and iPod from working on Longhorn/Vista.
Can you imagine the amount of money in that Microsoft lawsuit when Apple wins it?
For those who complain about media palying tools on OSX, although it does not do real, VLC is worth a look.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html
(Its even referenced on apple site for those who worry about open sourc / freeware “validity” http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/vlcmediaplayer.html
)
MDN word: value
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as in VLC excellent value for money
Sounds horrible. Ever since the release of OSX.4 I have not been able to get Windows Media Player to either load or play. The installer crashes. This is true on my desk top AND on my laptop. I don’t know why, and while I don’t much care there are, occasionally, news broadcasts on CNN I’d like to watch which I can’t because I don’t have a functional Windows Media Player.
RevNeal,
If you were using the ‘Modern’ theme for WMP on Mac, it causes it to crash for whatever reason. This shouldn’t affect the plugin though (from my experience). Your best bet would be to delete the Windows Media PLayer Prefs file under ~/Library/Preferences and it should default back to the other ugly ‘default’ theme.
Windows Media Player has only one unique feature;
“Buffering…”
Actually, I think Glaser looks more like Baron Vladimir Harkonnen of Dune. He hides his suspensor belt beneath his robes…