MS says Apple iTunes "too limited"

BANGALORE: Apple released its iTunes for Windows last week. However Microsoft is not very happy about it. The largest software maker in the world says that Windows users equipped with iPods cannot buy tunes through other existing services and transfer them to the MP3 player.

This is because most existing services such as Napster 2.0 and BuyMusic currently use Microsoft's Windows Media 9 (WM9) standard, whereas Apple has developed its own competing standard, based on QuickTime.

Microsoft sees iTunes as a big threat because until Apple launched iTunes for Windows, WM9 was the only multimedia solution that performed the digital rights management (DRM) for music business.

Dave Fester, General Manager of Microsoft's Windows Digital Media Division, says "Users of iTunes are limited to music from Apple's Music Store. As I mentioned earlier, this is a drawback for Windows users, who expect choice in music services, choice in devices, and choice in music from a wide-variety of music services to burn to a CD or put on a portable device."

Apple's stiffest competition at this stage appears ready to come from Roxio's Napster 2.0 service. This service uses WM9 for its tracks, and Napster 2.0 users can also acquire a co-branded Samsung/Napster hard drive-based MP3 player.

"Lastly, if you use Apple's music store along with iTunes, you don't have the ability of using the over 40 different Windows Media-compatible portable music devices. When I'm paying for music, I want to know that I have choices today and in the future. Unless Apple decides to make radical changes to its service model, a Windows-based version of iTunes will still remain a closed system, where iPod owners cannot access content from other services," added Fester.