iTunes popularity to surpass RealPlayer by mid-year
Slash Lane
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.
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.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Marko Zivkovic
David Schloss
Wesley Hilliard
Mike Wuerthele and Malcolm Owen
59 Comments
People still use RealPlayer?
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.
Isn't iTunes just another front end for Quicktime? Shouldn't both be grouped under Quicktime streaming?
huh, I had always assumed that iTunes was more poplar?
Yeah I don't quite get it. This is about using iTunes for streaming internet media?