Microsoft Announces Windows Media Player for Mac OS X

NEW YORK, July 19, 2001 — Microsoft Corp. today announced Microsoft® Windows Media™
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 Microsofts 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 Apples 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 industrys 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.

Microsoft and Windows Media are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsofts corporate information pages.

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