• Illustration: Album Stacking

Windows Media Player 11, the latest update to Windows' built-in digital media application, offers minor improvements, such as better graphics, improved search, and more ways to synchronize content with portable devices. However, the product faces an uncertain future as Microsoft turns its attention to its newer Zune products, which do not use the Windows Media Player.

Cleaner Interface, More Sync Options

Ten months after introducing the beta at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft has released Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP SP2. The Player will also come with Windows Vista, which will be available to consumers in early 2007.

Unlike the last two updates to the Player, both of which included updates to the underlying Windows Media platform, version 11 focuses primarily on user interface enhancements, along with a few other minor improvements.

User interface. The most noticeable difference in Windows Media Player 11 is the user interface, which features a cleaner design reminiscent of Apple's popular iTunes digital media application. Submenus for each of the main menu options make many features more accessible, and a left-side navigation pane shows only music categories (e.g., artists, albums) by default, hiding less-used menus for TV and video and reducing clutter. Graphic elements are more prominent—for example, "stacks" of album covers appear when scrolling through groups of albums (for a sample, see the illustration "Album Stacking"), and when a compatible portable device is attached to the PC, users see an image of that device and a taskbar representing how much space is available on it.

Urge. The new Player is integrated with MTV's Urge online service, which offers more than 2 million songs as individual downloads or on an "all you can eat" subscription basis. The last version of the Player gave equal prominence to multiple music stores, each with different user interfaces and varying degrees of usability. These stores are still available in the new Player, but users must select them manually from a fairly obscure menu option. Microsoft has said that the Vista version of the Player might feature other stores with a similar level of integration as Urge, but has not given further details.

Other improvements. Windows Media Player 11 includes some new functionality, such as the following:

• Ripping audio CDs into lossless WAV and Windows Media Pro formats
• Noticeably faster scrolling through large libraries
• Shuffle Sync, which detects the capacity of an attached device and automatically fills it with a random selection of content (similar to how iTunes works with the iPod Shuffle)
• Reverse Sync, which can transfer files from a portable device to a PC—a feature that Apple's iTunes and iPod lack, and is extremely helpful for users with multiple PCs
• Guest Sync, which allows device synchronization with libraries on multiple PCs
• Audio fingerprinting, which can identify ripped songs and automatically update missing or incorrect information (such as a song title or album art) by downloading it from an online database
• An "instant search" feature, accessible from all screens in the interface (including the Urge service), that offers a list of results as soon as the user begins typing, and narrows those results with each keystroke.

An Uncertain Future

When Windows Media Player 11 development began in late 2004, Microsoft's digital media strategy was centered on Windows, and the company relied on partners to fill gaps, such as portable and networked digital media devices and online stores.

Since then, Apple's success with iPod and iTunes, which have more than 70% share in their respective markets, has sparked a fundamental shift in Microsoft's home entertainment strategy. Instead of limiting its development to PC software, Microsoft is mimicking Apple's approach by building its own portable player, Zune, along with dedicated playback software and online store. Although based on the underlying Windows Media platform, Zune does not use the Windows Media Player, and the Zune Marketplace is not accessible from within the Player. Conversely, content from Windows Media-based stores will probably not work with the Zune device because of incompatible digital rights management (DRM) technologies. (Zune uses Windows Media DRM, and the Zune team said it did nothing to disable content from other stores, but Microsoft is not actively supporting this scenario and the specific DRM keys may differ.)

Microsoft says it changed its approach to give Zune users a better experience than is available with today's Windows Media devices and stores, and to ensure that all the component parts work smoothly together, as is the case with Apple's iPod and iTunes. In addition, Microsoft might believe it can make a bigger splash with Zune by starting over from scratch, rather than placing Zune into an already crowded and relatively unsuccessful market of Windows Media-based devices and stores.

Antitrust concerns may further limit Microsoft's interest in the Windows Media Player. Regulators in the European Union (EU) and South Korea have alleged that by bundling the Player with Windows, Microsoft is using its monopoly in desktop OSs to compete unfairly in the digital media market, and they have ordered Microsoft to ship specialized versions of Windows without the Player. (Microsoft has appealed both rulings but must comply while the appeals are pending.)

Given these changes, the Player is unlikely to receive another update, apart from patches for security-related problems, until the next version of Windows. Partners who have built a business around the Player—for example, companies that create plug-ins or integrated music stores, or who rely on it for device synchronization—should expect fewer technology updates and minimal comarketing assistance.

Availability and Resources

Windows Media Player 11 requires Windows XP SP2 or Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. XP users must electronically validate their copy of Windows before downloading the Player.

Windows Media Player 11 will also be included with all versions of Windows Vista, except for the specialized "N" and "K" editions, created to satisfy antitrust regulators in Europe and South Korea, respectively.

The Windows Media Player 11 home page, including a link to the download, is at www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/default.aspx.

Zune and Microsoft's break with its previous Windows Media strategy are detailed in "Zune Portable Media Player Unveiled" on page 12 of the Oct. 2006 Update.

The EU's Mar. 2004 antitrust ruling, which included an order to ship a version of Windows XP without the Windows Media Player, is detailed in "EU Aims to Restrict 'Future Conduct'" on page 36 of the May 2004 Update.

South Korea's antitrust decision is discussed in "South Korea Orders Windows Changes" on page 38 of the Jan. 2006 Update.