Looks like Apple's Quicktime at 37% has snuck up on Windows Media (38%) leaving Real Media at 25% in the dust and at the current growth rate is soon to pip Microsoft to the number 1 position in the media streaming market!
With MPEG-4 and 3GPP (the mobile phone video standard) being based on Quicktime, and with the AAC format (the audio CODEC of MPEG-4) taking 70% of the legal music download market and iTunes and thus Quicktime being installed on every HP/Compaq computer and on every Founder PC shipped (China's no.2 PC maker) Quicktime is definitely on the ascendency. It's good to see the most flexible and fully featured media architecture - which with MPEG-4 is also an open standard (unlike the proprietary WM and Real) - coming out on top. -Mart ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Hill, Digital Media Specialist Information Management Services, Curtin University of Technology mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], web: http://is.curtin.edu.au/ims.cfm Mb: 0417-967-969 wk: (08)9266-3101 Fax: (08)9266-3826 http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/34390.html QuickTime 6 Breaks 250-Million Mark By Blane Warrene MacNewsWorld 06/10/04 12:19 PM PT Frost and Sullivan senior analyst Mukul Krishna told MacNewsWorld that Apple presently holds a 36.8 percent media-streaming market share. "The general feeling in the market is that MPEG-4, which means QuickTime, is easier to work with and more flexible to users and programmers," he said. Apple announced Thursday that QuickTime 6, its digital media software, has surpassed the 250-million download mark since that version was released two years ago. QuickTime 6.5 includes support for MPEG-4 for audio and video, and the 3GPP and 3GPP2 standards for streaming to mobile networks. Frank Casanova, senior director of QuickTime product marketing at Apple, said in an interview with MacNewsWorld that Thursday's distribution numbers account only for downloads off of Apple's Web site. "95 percent of the [QuickTime] downloads are for PC users," Casanova explained. "We do not count distribution via PC manufacturers, on enhanced music CDs or other multimedia products such as games and via AOL 9." QuickTime's Standards-Driven Success During its development of the MPEG-4 spec, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approached Apple in the hopes of using QuickTime at the core of this new standard. "When the ISO came to us asking to use the QuickTime file format, we obviously said yes," Casanova said. "By being standards-based, our adoption rate has been massive." For his part, Mukul Krishna, senior analyst at Frost and Sullivan said that potential adopters are leaning toward MPEG-4, which promises to be a huge benefit for Apple. "Many users are afraid to get tied down to a proprietary format, controlled by a single company," Krishna told MacNewsWorld. Casanova added that, because QuickTime is standards-based, Apple developers do not have to build audio and video players for every multimedia device introduced, unlike some of Apple's competitors. "As manufacturers and telcos adopt the MPEG and 3G standards, we automatically support their devices," Casanova said. Some QuickTime Standards Krishna explained that MPEG-4 is a digital-media compression standard for delivering audio and video either through a file or streaming. It will ultimately replace MPEG-2, the current standard used in broadcasting and multimedia products. The new standard, developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), a working group that is a affiliated with the International Standards Organization (ISO), provides DVD-quality video at lower data rates and smaller file sizes. "MPEG-2 will continue to dominate for a few years, but the movement is shifting in favor of MPEG-4," he said. According to Casanova, the 3G standards are simply extensions of MPEG-4, which provide a method for compressing digital media to distribute on next generation wireless networks. "The 3GPP standard supports audio and video streaming GSM cellular networks, and 3GPP2 covers streaming to CDMA networks," he said. "This gives us global coverage with QuickTime, which is translated into nearly every major language." Casanova added that Apple remains very active in standards development, including a newcomer currently called "H.264/AVC" for "advanced video codec." This new spec, a high-compression digital video encoder within MPEG-4, was created by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group, the group also responsible for H.263, widely used in video conferencing today. "We previewed H.264 support in Quick Time at the National Association of Broadcasters this year," Casanova said. "This standard will allow us to deliver high-definition video that you have to see to believe." Casanova explained a scenario where broadband users accessing H.264 encoded video content over the Internet would see quality improve two-fold. "It is the biggest advancement in video technology I've seen since being in this industry," he said. A Global Marketplace The marketplace is substantial and growing, according to Krishna's research. In a recent study released by Frost and Sullivan, the media streaming format market accounted for over US$700 million in revenue in 2003, with growth in the low double-digits expected during 2004 and 2005. Apple is cited as having a growth share in the report, holding 36.8 percent of the market in contrast to Microsoft's 38.2 percent and RealNetworks' dwindling 24.9 percent. "The general feeling in the market is that MPEG-4, which means QuickTime, is easier to work with and more flexible to users and programmers," Krishna said. For his part, Yankee Group wireless analyst John Jackson believes all of the big players need to be alert as this new industry sector unfolds in digital entertainment and media. "It is imperative that they hedge and be prepared to react to market shifts," he told MacNewsWorld. "Their addressable market is essentially the Earth under the 3G standards." Meanwhile, Casanova pointed out that Apple provides an end-to-end solution to the market for content creation and distribution with Final Cut Pro, QuickTime Streaming Server and the QuickTime client. "Content can be authored in Final Cut Pro, sent to a QuickTime Streaming Server in MPEG or 3G formats and distributed to Quick Time clients or mobile networks over the Internet," he added. -------------------------------------- Martin Hill mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] homepages: http://mart.ozmac.com Mb: 0417-967-969 hm: (08)9314-5242
