iTunes popularity to surpass RealPlayer by mid-year
Apple's iTunes is gaining new users five times faster than its closest competitor and will surpass RealPlayer in terms of popularity by mid-year, according to market research data released this week.
Website Optimization, a web performance and Internet marketing firm, said iTunes grew by 47.5 percent over the past year, while the other streaming media players mustered only single-digit growth.
Over the same time period, RealPlayer users grew by 9.1 percent, QuickTime by 8.7 percent, and Windows Media Player grew by 2.0 percent.
The firm, which extrapolated data provided by Nielsen/NetRatings in reaching its conclusions, added that iTunes should pass RealPlayer in unique users by the second quarter of 2007.
At the same time, broadband penetration in US homes has reportedly grown to 79.03 percent, up 0.62 percentage points since December. At current growth rates US broadband penetration should break 80 percent among active Internet users in March.
Meanwhile, 93.3 percent of US workers now have access to a broadband connection at their jobs, Website Optimization said, up 1.01 percentage points from the 92.29 percent share in December.
The firm's data has iTunes' user base at 27 million active users, compared to Real's 31 million and Windows Media Player's 72 million. Active QuickTime users are reported at just shy of 14 million.
Website Optimization, a web performance and Internet marketing firm, said iTunes grew by 47.5 percent over the past year, while the other streaming media players mustered only single-digit growth.
Over the same time period, RealPlayer users grew by 9.1 percent, QuickTime by 8.7 percent, and Windows Media Player grew by 2.0 percent.
The firm, which extrapolated data provided by Nielsen/NetRatings in reaching its conclusions, added that iTunes should pass RealPlayer in unique users by the second quarter of 2007.
At the same time, broadband penetration in US homes has reportedly grown to 79.03 percent, up 0.62 percentage points since December. At current growth rates US broadband penetration should break 80 percent among active Internet users in March.
Meanwhile, 93.3 percent of US workers now have access to a broadband connection at their jobs, Website Optimization said, up 1.01 percentage points from the 92.29 percent share in December.
The firm's data has iTunes' user base at 27 million active users, compared to Real's 31 million and Windows Media Player's 72 million. Active QuickTime users are reported at just shy of 14 million.
Comments
such as a local news station here in nyc... www.ny1.com
if you want to view any of their videos, you NEED real player.
unfortunately some websites only offer Real files, in order to view certain videos.
such as a local news station here in nyc... www.ny1.com
if you want to view any of their videos, you NEED real player.
WGN 720 is real player only for there live feed
huh, I had always assumed that iTunes was more poplar?
Although iTunes is very popular among Mac OS X users, on the PC side, most iTunes installations are for the iPod.
Real Player and Windows Media Player were being used for significantly longer period of time (as well as QuickTime Player, which is a horrible Windows port). That explains far smaller unique users for iTunes.
Go iTunes! +QuickTime of course for which it is but an ingenious and well engineered front end.
What about Winamp? Seemed like that used to be where everyone played the songs they got off of Napster and Kazaa...
I think this is just about streaming.
unfortunately some websites only offer Real files, in order to view certain videos.
such as a local news station here in nyc... www.ny1.com
if you want to view any of their videos, you NEED real player.
Honestly, I'd rather they use Real than WMP.
"QuickTime users total just shy of 14 million."
There are over 20 million users of OS X and each one has QuickTime. As "eAi" points out above, every Winblows user who has iTunes installed also has QuickTime installed.
Just 14 million?
I'd rather chew my own arm off than use Real.
I wish real would just curl up and DIEEEEE ALREADY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! aARHRHGHSGDHGHSGHG
<smashes some stuff>
Every user of iTunes has to have QuickTime installed, so its kind odd... We need some methodology for these stats or they're kinda pointless.
Yeah. It's weird. Stats methodology for iTunes is alright but the QuickTime bit needs to be spec'ed out as "QuickTime but without iTunes".
By the way, Flash Video if inserted in the graph would kick all those other players/codec's ass to Mars and back.
But it's looking solid. Very naiiice. In order of usage: FlashVideo > WindowsMedia > iTunes+Quicktime > WHOGIVESAFLYINGFRACK ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE
personally i've always found real player to be a compact and effective streaming app
True but their business practices and heavy-handed snake oil salesmanship leave a bad taste in my mouth.