I used to be a big fan of Windows Media Player. It ran smoothly, worked with all my codecs (or just about all), and to its credit, it still seems to load larger, streaming video files better than anyone. I had high hopes for version 10, even after the dubious beta test (don't ask). But alas, if you look at Windows Media Player compared to, oh, let's say, iTunes, there's just no comparison. All Apple has to do now is continue improving Quicktime streaming (which they've been doing quite noticeably over the last year) and integrate more video features into the iTunes client and they'll walk away with everything. Oh, and don't forget, Quicktime will be adding H.264 (the DVD codec) support for streaming soon. If you haven't seen the side-by-side comparison between H.264 and the current streaming video options, you're missing out.
Okay, so I won't exactly be deleting WMP from my system...yet. But unless Microsoft can innovate on this one a bit more, like they did with version 8, then they're going to lose this battle. Yesterday, they provided a necessary service. Today, they're just an embarrassing necessity. Where do they want to go tomorrow?
- Hutch
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