BleepingComputer.com: Analysts: Media Player Too Ingrained

<img src='/images/comp_logos/mslogo-2.jpg' style='float:right' vspace='8' hspace='8'> <b>SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Microsoft Corp. has strategically nurtured its Windows Media Player, making it by far the world's most dominant program for playing digital music and video on computers. Rival RealNetworks Inc.'s product ranks a very distant second.</b><br /><br />Dec 22, 5:42 PM (ET) By MAY WONG<br /> <br /> It's not just that Media Player has long been bundled with the Windows operating system, giving consumers an easy way to handle multimedia files without the need to download others.<br /> <br /> There's another big reason: Many companies in the fast-growing market of digital media - from online music providers to the makers of portable audio players - have already chosen Microsoft as a primary multimedia format.<br /> <br /> One example of the many partnerships Microsoft has successfully pursued: users of Napster's online music service must have recent versions of the Windows Media Player in order to play downloaded songs, create a song library or transfer any tunes to a portable player.<br /><br /> <div class='newslinks'><img src='http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/public/style_images/1/cs_page.gif'>&nbsp;<b>Link: <a href='http://apnews.myway.com//article/20041222/D874VGR01.html' target='_blank'><font color='red'>More</font></a><br />