Unique iTunes users will exceed RealPlayer users by the first half of 2007, according to projections by Website Optimization.
Users of iTunes grew by 47.5% over the past year, while the other streaming media players had single-digit growth.
At current growth rates iTunes users will exceed RealPlayer users by the second quarter of 2007:
Over the past year, the number of unique users of Apple’s iTunes player grew by 47.5%. Over the same time period, RealPlayer users grew by 9.1%, QuickTime by 8.7%, and Windows Media Player grew by 2.0% according to data provided by Nielsen//NetRatings (see Table 1). At current growth rates, iTunes should pass RealPlayer in unique users by the second quarter of 2007. Apple should be whistling a happy tune this year. While iTunes continues to show stong double-digit growth rates, Windows Media Player growth appeared to slow over the past year.
More info, including broadband growth trends in the US and Europe, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “RadDoc” for the heads up.]
iTunes is based on QuickTime. If you’re watching or listening to media with iTunes, you’re simply using QuickTime with the iTunes UI. In the table above, add iTunes and QuickTime together and you’ll see that QuickTime use surpassed RealPlayer use in late 2005. Not to mention that RealPlayer is pure evil controlled by a nasty donut-eating troll.
These Nielsen//NetRatings QuickTime numbers always look strange to us, perhaps because Apple, on June 6, 2005, stated that “nearly a billion copies” of QuickTime have been downloaded all-time. And, the last time we checked, QuickTime was part of the iTunes installation under Windows, so do the math.
Regardless, by whatever measure, QuickTime use is obviously rising rapidly and those media outlets that insist on streaming in the limited choice of either Windows Media or Real need to rethink their delivery choices. Why would any company that offers online video provide content playable in the third place player and not the second place player that’s growing more rapidly than all others?
Related article:
Apple’s QuickTime-based iTunes shows massive growth, to pass RealPlayer soon – March 16, 2006
I didn’t realize that RealPlayer was ahead of iTunes!!!
People in the UK should now be arguing for the BBC to drop RealPlayer, and use Quicktime instead….
Of course they could also drop Windows Media
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who listens to streamed stuff from itunes though? Surely it’s mostly downloaded stuff?
The interesting thing is that iTunes isn’t really comparable to Quicktime, windows media player or real player. iTunes is “Jukebox” and as such when you use it you’re pretty much using it directly. Things like Quicktime and Realplayer are used primarily in browser and often certain players are used because you have no choice. I use Realplayer to listen to BBC radion and that’s basically it – I have to. I choose to use iTunes for my music.
Minneapolis Star Tribune is Microsoft only for video. Needless to say: NO!
It’s all nice. I love Quicktime. And I don’t like Real Player. But Apple should also release a Linux version of Quicktime Player and iTunes, which Linux users have been waiting for a long time.
If they make it for the enemy (Windows), why not Linux? After all, the porting should be easier.
Since this is a count of users, as in number of people actively using the software, I don’t think you can just add iTunes and QT numbers together like that… seems like twisting the stats to me.
& the one billion QT downloads mean nothing. I’m sure I’ve downloaded a copy dozens of times over the years. I would still count as one user.
Think how many copies of WMP must exist but aren’t counted as they aren’t used. Far far more than 100 000 due to proliferation of Windows.
I hear that Real Player is a great way to get a virus too – over there in the Windows world.
it is so aggravating that most media outlets refuse to stream in the superior Quicktime…so I end up passing on viewing their content…why are they so obstinate?
Flexural is correct, and MDN is obviously playing ignorant. A count of actual, unique users is much more informative and definitely not equal to the number of downloaded copies. Additionally, “using QT” is not equal to “using iTunes” and vice versa, which is another reason why “downloaded copies” is not equal to “number of active users.” It is very interesting to see how these different software programs compare in terms of actual usage. Of course, comparing iTunes to Real Player or WMP is not really an accurate comparison.
remember that everyone with iTunes has quicktime
I honestly think QT would gain huge marketshare if the average person knew that QT and iTunes where essentially the same. Perhaps Apple needs to re-brand quicktime.
Someone show the BBC.
When a Mac user clicks on a Winblows Media file and Flip4Mac kicks in, does that data reflect this? The net connection would show that the machine is a Mac, so what does the player information show? Does it assume its QuickTime, when it’s really Winblows?
I hate Real Player. It has the most dysfunctional interface ever! It makes WMP look like a Apple product.
BLAME APPLE: I don’t understand why Apple doesn’t partner with 3rd party vendor’s (DELL, HP, LENOV) & content provider’s (YouTube, Yahoo, Amazon) and provide iTunes/OuickTime pre-installed on the machine’s they sell. That’s my biggest grip with Apple, the company refuses to play well with others…
Tacitus – I have already emailed the BBC about this, but they are so obviously in bed with the Devil from Redmond that its going to be very, very difficult to get them to change.
To demonstrate how much better Quicktime is that anything else have a look at:
http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/Customer/Showreels.aspx
The irony is that this is from the BBC! Their news/tv items stream in Windows Media or Real Player, and they want to do their own iPlayer based on Windoze DRM! Heck, why cant they just adopt QuickTime 7 and QT HD across the board? Come on Auntie! Learn from your own websites!
>But Apple should also release a Linux version of Quicktime Player and iTunes?
I would love for Apple to make a iTunes for Linux but the fact is, it would cost them too much. The RIAA insists on Apple Tying up music with DRM, and forces them to protect that DRM. There are far to many flavors of Linux for Apple to make an iTunes for them that can protect the keys well. It would just cost Apple too much time and money.
By the way, notice it is not just Apple. MS, Real, Sony, no one sells music to Linux users for the same reason.
“RealPlayer is pure evil controlled by a nasty donut-eating troll”
Did you know that Rob Glaser (founder of RealNetworks) is a major contributor to Air America radio? That makes him OK in my book, and the reason I stopped complaining that I had to use Real Audio instead of Quicktime to listen to Air America web streams.
“I would love for Apple to make a iTunes for Linux but the fact is, it would cost them too much. The RIAA insists on Apple Tying up music with DRM, and forces them to protect that DRM. There are far to many flavors of Linux for Apple to make an iTunes for them that can protect the keys well. It would just cost Apple too much time and money.”
That may be true for iTunes, but there’s no reason not to have a QT player.
Wod,
First of all:
RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser out $9.8 million as ‘Air America’ goes bankrupt
Second of all, Glaser is a douchebag:
Real CEO Glaser calls Apple iPod owners thieves
Real’s Rob Glaser calls Apple’s Steve Jobs ‘pigheaded’
Real CEO Glaser calls Apple ‘deceptive’ with iTunes Music Store
RealNetworks’ CEO Rob Glaser grabs 3 of top 10 spots on ‘Dumbest Moments in Business 2005’ list
Without any regard for numbers:
1) I do not and will not use Real Player – its simply a big pain in the ass – period.
2) Any website or online or offline media delivery of any kind that delivers its wares exclusively with Real Anything is immediately deleted from my browser from my computer and from my life. (see point no. 1)
3) I think that all virtual delivery of media should always include, whatever else it may or may not include, support for QT and Windows Media Player.
4) Inspite of what I just said in point no. 3 I wish that wma as an audio standard would go away. There has always been a truely and long established standard for digital audio that has always been and was meant to be universally standard and that format is AIFF. (And please spare me the – “… gee I thought that stood for Apple…” It does not. It stands for Audio Interchange File Format, sometimes shown as .aif, even the name sounds universal. The fact that MS refused to incorporate support for it at the OS level, thereby nullifying it for software developers for Windows, thereby blowing an already established and perfectly good file format all to hell, really makes me extra pissed at MS.) Everybody, even in the pro media industries, thinks that WMA and so called Broadcast WAV are the only established digital audio standards. It took the better part of 2 years to deprogram the brains of the audio pros in our facility on this issue. Another glaring example of MS success in brainwashing the masses.
In conclusion, I have to live with WMA and WAV even though I don’t like it, so it makes sense that web delivery of media should include support for it. Furthermore QT is also a long established professional standard, along with being the innate media player for the second largest commercially available OS on the planet Earth and it therefore also makes sense that it should be supported by all deliverers of media via the internet or any other digital way. Real is a joke and a pain.
Mac_IP_Atty: “BLAME APPLE: I don’t understand why Apple doesn’t partner with 3rd party vendor’s (DELL, HP, LENOV) & content provider’s (YouTube, Yahoo, Amazon) and provide iTunes/OuickTime pre-installed on the machine’s they sell. That’s my biggest grip with Apple, the company refuses to play well with others…”
Do you know what you are talking about? HP used to sell HP-blue iPod. Guess what application was pre-installed on the computers to sync with iPod? Yes, it’s iTunes and therefore, QuickTime also. Why aren’t they do that anymore? Hint: it’s not Apple that refuses to play well.
It’s not Apple’s call to make computer makers pre-install iTunes. Most of them are afraid of Microsoft revoking Windows license if they help MS’s biggest competitors. Others think they can take on Apple by themselves with their own digital players.
Factually Inclined:
Your “First of All” link showing that Rob Glaser was an investor of 9.8 million dollars to Air America, is exactly my point. I give him credit for that.
As to your “Second of All” collection of links showing that he is clearly anti-Apple, I agree completely, he loses a lot of points for that.
I leave it to you to judge which is more important when making the measure of a man. I think the First is more significant than the Second.
@..l.
You are spot on. Apple has time and again shown it’s willingness to work with others in reselling Apple products and time and again it gets burned. We’re about to see this again with the iPhone – Do you honestly think that when you walk into any cell phone shop that sells Cingular service that they’re going to cheerfully walk you over to the iPhone display – I’ll be anyone an iPhone that the answer is no.
Apple comes out with a great product, software hardware, decides to share it with non-Apple resellers, and the first thing that happens is that MS sends one of it’s thugs to that reseller and sets them straight, that company, through FUD or downright ignorance, then proceeds to steer cumstomers away from the Apple product, its weird buts its true, and there is plenty of real history to back up my claim. I cannot think of a single instance where Apple was able to trust a reseller with its product(s), Cingular will be no different. I hope that Apple continues to try and distribute its iTunes/QT products on other platforms, but anything where real money is at stake I wouldn’t be even half as trusting as Apple has bee.
Perfect time to open up the DRM and let everyone share in Apple’s success.
Ha suck my….
Air america is Communist tripe, get over it. They’re totally irrelevant and useless to the world.
“who listens to streamed stuff from itunes though? Surely it’s mostly downloaded stuff?“
You know that thing called Radio in iTunes with hundreds of stations? That’s my radio now. Free, no commercials. Some stations are so good I’ve donated money to them, like SomaFM and KEXP.
I can’t stand commercial FM radio anymore, and if an online station has an MP3 feed, as many do now, it goes into my iTunes playlist of Internet radio stations. In some cases, it’s actually better to listen to a local station over the Internet, for example if I am working inside a windowless office where you can’t get radio reception.
I love listening to streams in iTunes. iTunes is the best radio I’ve ever had.
Radio and Movie previews on iTunes. Apple’s movie previews site is the internet’s biggest.
As for including iTunes with every Dell, HP et cetera, you forget one thing.
Apple would have to pay the OEM’s for including the free iTunes with every computer.
Others who pay put a crippled version of their player on new computers and get that payment money back in upgrade purchases.
You don’t really want Apple to play that evil crippleware game, do you?
I wish Apple would combine QuickTime’s video playback capabilities in iTunes and made it a full competitor to Windows Media Player. I and many, MANY people haven’t had a day where we could view full-screen movies in iTunes without choppy playback (and it’s not my hardware). QT on the other hand is flawless.
You made your point exactly… only a total LOSER like Rob Glaser would agree to fund a totally LOSER enterprise like Air America…
Gee I always thought Air America was a comdey movie w/ Mel Gibson & Robert Downey Jr….
“Gee I always thought Air America was a comdey movie w/ Mel Gibson & Robert Downey Jr….”
Air America Radio is a so-called talk radio liberal station for those people who want an alternative to Fox News & Rush Limbaugh. Listen for yourself. If you don’t want to stream it, you can hear it on AM radio or XM satellite. Or as a paid Podcast, like I do.
Or don’t.
Just because the station has financial problems doesn’t mean that the programming isn’t worthwhile.
@ Wod
Yes it does. If they lose their audience they lose their advertisers who support the show thus they resort to begging for donations and stealing from the Boys and Girls Club. They lost their audience for a reason: the audience didn’t think the programing was worthwhile! Rush Limbuagh and the rest of the New Media have never beged for or recived donations from big-wig CEOs. The audience found Rush worthwhile.
Spock:
By that logic, Star Trek must have been a bad show. If you recall, apparently the audience didn’t find the original show worthwhile, and because of low ratings, it was cancelled after three seasons. So are you saying that proves the show wasn’t any good? (It was only in syndication that it really started to get popular, and as a result, you “Spock” can exist today)
Also note that Air America hasn’t lost its audience as you say, it is still on the air.
Ok you just changed the subject. Star Trek is entertainment. It has very little to do with politics. Its Science Fiction. Air America is voiceing a ideology that a lot of people disagree with to the point where they hardly have a audience. At least Star Trek shut down for over a decade to rethink itself. I find that a show that has a ridiculously small audience AND(make sure you read the AND part) has resort to disgracful tacits to stay running to be not worthwhile.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_America-Gloria_Wise_loan_controversy
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003117.htm
Oh and by the way Wod… Live Long And Prosper.
Mr. Spock:
I didn’t change the subject, we were talking about Popularity VS Quality. I said that just because a network is struggling financially, doesn’t mean that the programming isn’t worthwhile-you claim that it does- I came up with an example of a show (Star Trek) that wasn’t popular at first, but then ultimately became revered by generations of pointy-eared Vulcans like yourself!
I followed your links-interesting reading. No doubt there has been some shady financial dealings going on there at Air America. (For plenty more on that, watch the HBO documentary: “Left Of The Dial”.) The talk show hosts on the station joke about this on a regular basis, they even have comedy skits about their checks bouncing, about taking part-time jobs in order to help pay their rent, etc. So why should that change the value of their actual show content?
And of course, if you are going to try to discredit AAR for having a small audience, well, I just have to say, you are a Mac user, aren’t you? (This is MacDailyNews!)
I agree now. I let my human half take control of my emotions. I did’nt allow time to consider the broader consequences my theory would have. Anyway you sound just like Dr. Mccoy.
LLaP,
And another thing that you didn’t consider is…what? You agree?
That is not..logical..(sound of galaxies crashing in background)
So it can happen! LL&P! Well done Mr. Spock!