Real Networks has simultaneously showed increased Mac support and heated up the battle over streaming multimedia Internet content with the release of RealPlayer G2 for the Mac. G2 for Windows was released earlier this year and in fact an update to the Windows version was announced with the final release for the Mac. RealPLayer G2 for the Mac includes support for the MP3 format as well as and better streaming content made with RealNetworks's own streaming format. According to RealNetworks:
RealPlayer G2 final release for Macintosh, targeted for RealPlayer Macintosh consumers, is the most advanced RealNetworks product ever released for the Macintosh platform. RealPlayer G2 for Macintosh brings advanced multimedia content authored with Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) to the growing Mac user base, along with other groundbreaking RealSystem G2 features like SureStream and MP3 playback support.
"We believe that the Macintosh is the best platform for streaming media and RealNetworks has been a stalwart in supporting the Mac with regular updates to their popular RealPlayer software," said Clent Richardson, Apple's Vice President of worldwide developer relations. "The RealPlayer G2 final release for Macintosh will enable Mac users around the world to experience the latest RealNetworks has to offer in streaming media."
RealNetworks is offering the basic version of RealPLayer G2 for free while RealPlayer Plus G2 is priced at
The Mac Observer Spin: RealNetworks is working hard to do two things. The first is to show their support for the Mac as witnessed by the quote we included above and the second is to make sure everyone knows that they are the current market leaders in the delivery of streaming Internet content. Here are two more quotes from the company:
All these new features build on previous releases of RealPlayer, which now has more than 60 million registered users, an increase of more than 10 million unique users since January, 1999.
RealSystem Market Leadership
RealNetworks continues to maintain a more than 85% share of the streaming media market. More than 85% of all Web pages on the Internet using streaming media use industry leading RealAudio, RealVideo, RealFlash, RealText or RealPix, and more than 300,000 hours of live RealAudio and RealVideo programming are available each week (Source: Hotbot).
QuickTime 4 has to have the company worried and for good reason. QuickTime is beginning to take on a life of its own. These statements almost seem defensive in nature and that is understandable.
Our money has RealNetworks either licensing QuickTime X or allying with Apple making it a two way race against Microsoft's MediaPlayer format sometime in the relatively near future (12-24 months).
RealNetworks
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