July 19, 2001
Microsoft Announces Windows Media Player for Mac OS X
“”””””””Carbonized”””””””” Player Sports New Aqua Interface for Digital Audio and Video
Playback
NEW YORK – July 19, 2001 – Microsoft Corp. today announced Microsoft(r)
Windows Media(tm) Player for Mac OS X and demonstrated a prerelease version
of the player at the Macworld Conference & Expo in New York. The new player
is being designed and “”””””””Carbonized”””””””” for OS X and will feature the new Aqua
interface. Windows Media Player for Mac OS X will be available as a free
download this fall, providing users of Mac with the best Windows Media
experience on the new OS X operating system.
The new media player is being developed to meet demand for Windows Media
content on the Mac OS X platform with an easy-to-use player for both audio
and video. It will support Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM)
and the latest industry-leading Windows Media audio and video technology.
This will enable users of Mac to enjoy audio and video content with Windows
Media and ensure that content providers can encode their content once to
reach the broadest possible audience.
“”””””””Windows Media Player for Mac OS X brings together the excitement of the
new Aqua interface with the high quality of Windows Media,”””””””” said Dave
Fester, general manager of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft.
“”””””””This new player demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to providing the
highest-quality digital media playback for users of Mac.””””””””
Because Windows Media Player for Mac OS X is being built on Apple’s new
Carbon APIs, it will run natively in the OS X environment and will take
advantage of Mac OS X features like multiprocessing and the Aqua interface,
which provides a look consistent with other new Mac applications. The
player will come with two additional skins, including a miniplayer skin for
simple audio playback.
Windows Media Player for Mac OS X will support playback of streamed or
downloaded files using the latest Windows Media Audio and Video 8 codecs,
which provide the highest possible video quality at all bandwidths,
CD-quality audio at 64 Kbps and near-CD-quality sound at 48 Kbps. Because
Windows Media Audio is twice as efficient as MP3, music fans enjoy shorter
download times and can store twice as much music on their hard drives using
Windows Media Audio as they can using MP3.
Built-in support for digital rights management means users of Mac will be
able to download music and movies protected with Windows Media DRM for
purchase or promotion. Content from thousands of providers is featured at
WindowsMedia.com (http://WindowsMedia.com/).
Windows Media Player for Mac OS X will run on most popular Macintosh
models, including the Apple iMac, Cube and G4 as well as the iBook and
PowerBook laptops.
About Windows Media
Windows Media is the leading digital media platform, providing unmatched
audio and video quality to consumers, content providers, solution
providers, software developers and corporations. Windows Media offers the
industry’s only integrated rights-management solution and the most scalable
and reliable streaming technology tested by independent labs. Windows Media
Technologies includes Windows Media Player for consumers, Windows Media
Services for servers, Windows Media Tools for content creation and the
Windows Media Software Development Kit (SDK) for software developers.
Windows Media Player, available in
26 languages, is the fastest-growing media player. More information about
Windows Media can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “”””””””MSFT””””””””) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business
computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services
designed to empower people through great software – any time, any place and
on any device.
